Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday attended the Governing Council meeting of Niti Aayog at New Delhi; and discussed achieving self sufficiency in agricultural production and crop diversification, implementation of national education policy, and urban bodies’ administration.
Thakur, in his address, said that the State Government is implementing Rs 1,010 crore HP Crop Diversification Scheme in all districts, and the budget provision has been made for promoting mushroom farming, especially Shitake and Dhingree varieties.
“State’s 31,584 orchardists were covered under the state-sponsored schemes whereas 4.15 lakh orchardists were benefitted under centrally sponsored schemes during the last four and half years. To double the farmers’ income, 3590 gram panchayats have been covered under ‘Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kisan Yojna’ and farmers had saved about Rs 9.75 crores by switching over to natural manure instead of chemical fertilizers.
He said that 10 points of sale were set up across the State besides Delhi and Chandigarh for selling natural farming produce. He added that efforts were afoot to increase production of pulses, oilseeds and other agriculture produce to achieve self-sufficiency with the help of advanced technology.
Thakur also urged the Prime Minister to allocate five TV channels to Himachal out of total 200 channels under recently announced Swayam Prabha which will telecast high quality educational programmes.
He added that the State Government is also considering to start Mukhya Mantri Shodh Parotsahan Yojna from the current academic session in universities to facilitate research scholars. “Efforts are being made to impart employment-oriented education and placement cells have been set up,” he said. He further informed that Drone policy has been framed by the government and students were being imparted Drone training to enable the application of modern technology in the state.