Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday said the state government was endeavouring to make Himachal Pradesh a smoke free state of the country at the earliest.

Addressing a public meeting at Seraj in Mandi district where he announced projects worth Rs 13 crores, Thakur said the government has launched Jan Manch to ensure that the issues and grievances of the general public were redressed in a time-bound manner. “Now, going a step forward, the Chief Minister Helpline 1100 has been started to ensure that the people did not require even to go to Jan Manch for redressal of their grievances,” he added.

He said the people of the Seraj area had given him wholehearted support for the last over two decades and he had also strived hard to come up to their expectations.

Being a remote area of the district was giving special stress on strengthening road connectivity by taking up several rural road projects.

It was due to the faith and benevolence of the people of the area that Seraj today was literally on the ‘Shikhar’.

He urged the people to keep this support and momentum going on so that the pace of development goes uninterrupted.

“India is forging ahead on the path of progress and prosperity under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state is fortunate that he consider Himachal as his second home.

The BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha elections bettered its numbers from 2014 winning 303 seats on its own and NDA getting 353 seats in total with its allies which paved the way for a strong, vibrant and new India.

Himachal set a record in these elections by winning all the 68 Assembly constituencies and its vote share was highest in the state whereas victory margin of 4.77 lakh votes is highest in the country in Kangra parliament constituency,” he said.

Thakur said the biggest achievement of the Union government during the first hundred days in office was to scrap Article 370 from Jammu Kashmir, thereby paving the way for ‘One Nation, One Constitution’.

Jan Dhan Yojna, Ayushmaan Bharat, Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna, Ujjawala Yojna etc were a few central schemes launched by the Prime Minister which were proving a stepping stone for making of a New India.

“The state government has also launched Him Care scheme to cover the 22 lakh people not covered under Ayushmaan Bharat and to date, over 45,000 people have been benefitted under it.

Similarly, the government has launched Grihini Suvidha Yojna to cover all the families not covered under Ujjawala Yojna and Sahara Yojna has been started to provide financial assistance to the family of those with seriously ill patients,” he added.

The Chief Minister inaugurated building of Primary Health Centre at Bagachanogi constructed at a cost of Rs 86 lakh.

He inaugurated lift water supply scheme for census villages Kalhani, Sarachi, Khanwachi, Baggi Khudagi, DFP Funjar, Kuklah in Gram Panchayat Kalhani constructed by spending Rs 195.06 lakh which would benefit about 43 habitations of these Panchayats.