Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday said the constitution of new Municipal Corporations (MCs) in Solan, Palampur and Mandi is vital to ensure that all these towns are developed in a planned and systematic manner.

Addressing a public meeting in Solan, Thakur said this decision of the state government had fulfilled the long pending demand of the people of all these three towns.

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“The present State Government constituted 412 new gram panchayats, 7 Nagar Panchayats and 3 Municipal Corporations in the state to ensure active participation of the people in the grass root institutions of democracy,” he said.

The CM said the formation of Municipal Corporation in Solan town would ensure proper planning and systematic development of the town so that the town maintains its old glory and fame.

Solan is one of the most centrally located and lively town of the state, which is not only the gateway of the state but also attracts people from all parts of the state to settle here due to its pleasant environment. With this, the need has been felt to ensure planned, systemic and proper development of the town and it was thus decided by the present government to upgrade the Municipal Council of Solan into Municipal Corporation, he asserted.

Thakur further said that the Covid-19 pandemic had adversely affected the world economy and India and that HP was not an exception.

But with the active support and cooperation of the people of the state, the government had successfully come out from this situation, he said.

“The functionaries of BJP not only provided food and essential commodities to the needy and the poor but also distributed about 53 lakh face masks to the people.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi not only took timely and effective decisions to bail out the country from this crisis but also motivated the scientists to develop indigenous vaccines for this virus.

Prime Minister gave a clarion call to the people of the country to find out opportunities even in the challenges and it was due to his motivation that once fully dependent on China for PPE kits, today India was producing over 6 lakh PPE kits daily and exporting the same to several other countries,” Thakur said. The CM said Himachal had only 60 ventilators in the state before the Covid pandemic but today the state has over 600 ventilators.

He accused the Congress of not hesitating from politicising the sensitive issue of pandemic and said the party blamed the government for spreading the virus by bringing home about 2.50 lakh people of the state stranded in different parts of the country.

Not only this, the state Congress raised bills of Rs 13 crore before its party high command as an amount spent to provide masks and sanitisers to the people of the state.

He wondered how and where the Congress leaders spent this amount as the people of the state received nothing from them.