Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday said 10 residential schools would be opened in Himachal Pradesh for meritorious students so that they can compete with students of private schools.

Addressing a public gathering at Jhanduta in Bilaspur district, Thakur said the government has announced a new and ambitious scheme ‘Atal Adarsh Aawasiya Shiksha Yojana’ with a budget provision of Rs 25 crore.

“Ten Adarsh schools would be opened in the state under this scheme which would be residential schools and special facilities would be provided to the students studying there,” he said.

The CM said that the present government has completed 11 months in office and during this period, several welfare schemes have been launched for welfare and development of every section of the society.

In order to ensure that the pace of development gets a boost, he had visited 58 assembly constituencies of the state.

“The government is endeavouring to give preference in the matter of development which remained neglected so far due to one reason or other,” he said, adding he himself belongs to a humble background and was well aware of the developmental demands and aspirations of the people of the state.

He said that when the present government assumed the office, the state was reeling under the loan burden of Rs 46,500 crore due to the financial mismanagement of the previous government.

During this period, the state government has already succeeded in getting developmental projects worth Rs 6300 crore sanctioned from the Union government while central projects worth crores of rupees were in the pipeline.

Thakur said the Union government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to make India a world power and it was the need of the hour that leadership of the nation remains in his strong hands.

He said that Himachal Pradesh was poised to become the first state of the country to have a gas connection in every household.

For this, the state government has launched Ghirini Suvidha Yojna under which free LPG connections were being provided to left out households.

The Mukhiya Mantri Swavlamban Yojna has also been launched for providing financial assistance to the youth to start their self-employment opportunities.