A restive Virbhadra Cabinet, fresh from having suffered a rout in the recent polls, met on Saturday and reposed faith in the leadership of Virbhadra Singh. As there is a clamour from several quarters to fix responsibility of Congress debacle at the top, the Himachal Cabinet also resolved to stand firm by AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
The Cabinet accepted the verdict of the people with humility said a spokesman. In other agenda, the Cabinet approved to set up a medical college in Hamirpur with majority funding from the Union Government. A cabinet spokesman said that it would be a 100 MBBS seats per year intake college and the cost of establishing the institute is Rs 189 crore.
To be set up under a Government of India scheme for new colleges, the cost for setting up the medical college would be shared on a 90:10 basis by the centre and State Governments, the spokesman stated. The State has already signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Central Government for setting up three medical colleges in Himachal, the other two are proposed to be set up in Chamba and Nahan.
Presided over by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh the Cabinet also approved installation of water ATMs at various places in the State on a build, operate, manage and maintain basis. The sites approved were at Mata Chintpurani in Una, Chammunda Mata Mandir, Kangra Mandir, Dharamshala (near Rainbow School Dari) in Kangra, Vikasnagar, Ridge, ISBT Tutikandi and local bus stand and at IGMC in Shimla.