Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday conceded to the demands of government employees and announced new sops to end disparities in new pay scales that were offered earlier.

Addressing state-level function of 52nd Statehood Day was celebrated with great fervour and enthusiasm at historic Thodo ground in Solan, Thakur said the state has recently implemented new pay scales for employees of the government ensuring benefits of about Rs 6,000 crore to about 2.25 lakh employees. However, it was felt that few disparities existed in the new pay scales of few categories. He announced that now the employees would be given a third option besides two options already given to them.

He announced that pensioners of the state government would also be given pension as per the new pay scales of Punjab government and the decision will benefit about 1.75 lakh pensioners by providing financial benefits of about Rs 2,000 crore. He also announced 31 per cent DA to all the employees of the state at par with the Central government employees and stated that this would provide financial benefits of Rs 500 crore to the employees of the state.

He announced an increase in annual income for availing the benefits of various welfare schemes and pensions for the weaker sections of the society from existing Rs 35,000 to Rs 50,000. The benefits of higher scales would be provided immediately to all those constables who were eligible for higher scales.

He announced that all the constables appointed after 2015 would be eligible for higher scale as per other categories of employees.

The Chief Minister also announced that the domestic consumers of the state whose electricity consumption is up to 60 units per month would not be charged any fee per electricity unit. They would incur zero cost per unit of electricity consumed. With this decision, domestic consumers whose electricity consumption is up to 125 units, would be charged only one rupee per unit cost. Over 11 lakh domestic consumers would be benefitted from this decision and the state government would incur an additional expenditure of Rs 60 crore on providing this relief.

In order to give relief to the farmers in the state, he announced to reduce the present per unit cost of electricity from 50 paise to 30 paise which will be applicable from April 2022.

Thakur while congratulating the people of the state on this historic occasion said that today this day was also observed as the closing ceremony of celebrations organised to commemorate the Golden Jubilee year of statehood of Himachal.

He paid rich tributes to the founder of Himachal and first Chief Minister Dr Y S Parmar for laying a sound foundation for development of the state. He also paid rich tributes to all the freedom fighters and soldiers who laid down their lives for guarding the frontiers of the Nation.

Thakur said that despite the Corona pandemic, the present state government during the last 4 years has worked with new zeal and innovative thoughts to give new dimension to the development of all parts of the state. The state government has taken Himachal to new heights of development by imbibing the basic mantra ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for balanced and holistic development and welfare of all sections of the society.

“The people of the state were fortunate to have the affection and benevolence of the Prime Minister. The state government during these four years made honest efforts to strengthen the state’s economy, providing social security to the elderly, creating employment and self-employment opportunities for the youth, ensuring women’s security and their socio-economic upliftment, prosperity of farmers and horticulturists and backward sections of the society.

The government has ensured better health facilities to keep the people of state safe from the corona pandemic and steps were taken to strengthen the health services in the state.

There were only two oxygen plants in the state, whereas today there are as many as 48 oxygen plants. Today, the state has the facility of more than one thousand ventilators whereas earlier there were only 50 ventilators,” he added.

He further stated that the state government has taken effective steps to check the spread of this virus. Himachal has become the first state in the country to achieve hundred percent targets of Phase-I and II of vaccination against Coronavirus. He thanked the Prime Minister for his full cooperation in this challenging time and also expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the tireless efforts of the frontline workers and the cooperation received from the people of the state in the success of this important campaign.

He honoured three war widows of Solan district including Dil Kumari Thapa, Savitri Devi and Nirmala Devi on this occasion. Head constable Sandeep Chandel was also felicitated by the Chief Minister who has been awarded Prime Minister’s Police Medal for life saving for the year 2018.