The three day Pinder Valley cultural and tourism fair concluded on Thursday. Speaking as chief guest in a ceremony held on the occasion, the State Chief Minister Harish Rawat termed such fairs as the medium by which we can give pace to the economy of the state by conserving the heritage.
He announced a financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the organizing committee of the fair. He said that the more than 15 lakh tourists visited the Badrinath temple this year and the state government has taken up a target of increasing this number to 30-40 lakh next year.
Rawat said that the State Government would give status of MNREGA labour to those women who are working in their own field. He claimed that Uttarakhand is the first state where farmers are provided pension.
The CM said that the State is providing bonus to farmers to promote local and conventional farming. He said that a sum of Rs 5,000 is being provided to all women self help groups as part of government’s wish to strengthen them and a grant of Rs 1 lakh would be provided to the self help groups engaged in community farming.
Claiming that the state is heading on the path of inclusive development, CM said that the State is first in the country to provide maximum number of pensions for social security. He said the number of pensioners in the State has increased to 7.25 lakh from mere 1.74 lakhs in 2014. The widows, old, handicapped, dwarfs, wives of mentally retarded persons, farmers, Purohits, artisans, journalists, statehood activists, Jagaria and Dangarias are all getting pensions.
The CM said that the state government is committed to provide employment to at least one member of a family by the year 2020 and provide employment to all eligible people by the year 2022. He claimed that process to fill 30000 Government vacancies is currently on and employment to 16000 has been provided.
The Block Pramukh Rakesh Joshi, Jila Parishad member Bhavna Rawat, District Magistrate of Chamoli Vinod Kumar Suman and others besides large number of people were present on the occasion.