Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today launched ‘Panchvati Yojna’ for senior citizens of rural areas of the state under which parks and gardens would be developed in every development block with necessary facilities.

He said that the main objective of this Yojna, which is being taken up in link up with MNREGA scheme, is to provide opportunity to the elderly people to spend their leisure time strolling in these parks and gardens.

The Chief Minister said that these parks and gardens would be developed on levelled land of minimum one bigha with convergence of MGNREGA, Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) and 14th Finance Commission to enhance the life expectancy keeping in view the health requirements of the senior citizens.

He said that Ayurvedic and medicinal plants would be grown there besides providing recreational equipment, walking tracks and other basic amenities for elderly people.

Thakur said that during the current financial year as many as 100 such parks would be developed in different parts of the State. He said that in the first phase launching of such parks were held today through video conferencing in Development Block Gohar, district Mandi, Development block Bangana in district Una, development blocks Banjar and Naggar in district Kullu, development block Kaza in Lahaul-Spiti district, development blocks Nagrota Bagwan and Sulah in Kangra district, development blocks Paonta Sahib and Pachhad in Sirmaur district, development blocks Tissa and Bhatiyat in Chamba district, development block Kalpa in Kinnaur district, development block Kandaghat in Solan district, development block Rohru in Shimla district and development block Nadaun in Hamirpur district.

The Chief Minister said that the parks would prove a boon to the senior citizens to lead a healthy and happy life by taking benefits of these parks. He said that the State Government was striving hard to provide maximum facilities to the people of the State and this scheme was one of them in this direction.

Thakur said that the Covid-19 scenario has forced the policy makers to rethink and reformulate our policies and programmes with special focus on rural development.

He said 90 percent of the population of the state reside in rural areas therefore the focus of the government is on rural oriented policies which had been ensuring an accelerated pace of development in these areas.