Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Wednesday said the state has emerged as the first state in the country in effective implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission due to the concerted efforts of the government.

Addressing a public meeting at Jaisinghpur in Kangra district, he said the Jal Jeevan Mission was started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that every household gets tapped drinking water.

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“Although the pandemic adversely affected the economy of the country and the state, the Himachal government ensured that the pace of development goes uninterrupted. The people of the country were fortunate that during this testing time the country was led by the able leadership of PM Modi. Even the leading independent agencies in their survey have judged the PM as the most popular leaders of the world,” he added.

The Chief Minister accused the Congress leaders of politicising the sensitive issue of the Covid pandemic and said at the peak of the pandemic, the Congress leaders did nothing except mislead the people of the state.

State Congress leaders even did not spare their own Central leaders and raised a bill worth Rs 12 crore as expenditure during the pandemic.

He stated that there were only 50 ventilators in the state and the present state government took up the matter with PM Modi and 500 ventilators were immediately provided to the state. And today the state has over a thousand functional ventilators. Similarly, there were only two oxygen plants in the state and today the state has 30 oxygen plants in various parts of Himachal, he added.

Thakur also thanked the doctors, health workers, and other frontline workers for making Himachal the first state in the country with cent percent vaccination of eligible age groups.

“It is due to the strong leadership provided by the Prime Minister that indigenous vaccines were developed in the country. Congress leaders even politicized this issue and termed this vaccine as a vaccine of BJP. The biggest vaccination campaign of the world was carried out in the country and Himachal also pioneered this campaign,” the CM said.

He accused the opposition leaders of befooling the people on the name of the Old Pension Scheme and New Pension Scheme issue and stated the former CM Virbhadra Singh-led Congress government abolished the OPS in 2003.

Similarly, the Congress government changed the R&P Rules of police in 2015, and police personnel was deprived of few benefits, he said, adding the government was well aware of the situation and will do whatever possible for their welfare, he added.