Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday announced additional salary to Corona warriors such as staff nurses, ward boys, Class IV employees, Asha workers etc, who are involved directly in the service of Covid patients, for the months of April and May.

He also announced sops for ailing tourism and transport sector which were badly affected in Covid pandemic while addressing state level Himachal Day function at Padhar in Mandi district.

“An ex-gratia/honorarium of Rs 1,500 will be given to all the Class-3, 4 employees such as staff nurses, ward boys, Class IV employees, Asha workers etc involved directly in the service of Covid patients.

An interest subvention scheme for 3 months till June 2021 for the tourism industry has been started and all hotels, tourist lodges, tourism units will be exempted from paying demand charges for 2 months without any late charges. They could pay the same in easy installments and in addition, demand charges would not be levied from private schools, as they have also adversely affected due to pandemic,” he added.

He announced an interest subversion scheme for the transport sector so that they could also avail financial facilities.

Under the scheme, 50 per cent concession on SRT on stage carriage for 3 months from April and 50 per cent concession on passenger tax for 3 months on taxis and contract carriage will be given, he said.

Thakur further stated that the whole world has been suffering from Covid-19 and our state was also no exception.

Despite the challenges of Covid-19, with support of people, the government tried to revive the economy of the state by regulating the basic facilities smoothly.

The state government had collected health information of 70 lakh people at their doorsteps under the Active Case Finding campaign.

He urged the people of the state to come forward to help the government in checking the spread of this virus.

He also urged the people to strictly follow the guidelines and SOPs of the state government from time to time while calling them to join the vaccination campaign along with following the mantra of ‘Dawai Bhi-Kadai Bhi’.

The Chief Minister’s announcements had, however, left government employees and pensioners disappointed as they were expecting release of arrears which were freezed after Covid pandemic and also announcements of 6th pay commission.