Himachal Pradesh Governor, Shiv Pratap Shukla exhorted the youth to enroll for skill development courses to explore self-employment opportunities.

“Along with academics, the youth should be pushed towards skill development so that they could get more self-employment opportunities as well as employment in the corporate sectors,” he said.

Presiding over a review meeting with the district administration of Hamirpur on Monday, Shiv Pratap Shukla said there was no limit to development and it is a continuous process.

He said although Hamirpur was geographically a small district, it has established many milestones of development.

The governor said he has visited the district for the first time and a lot of work has been done here in terms of development, which has been possible due to the continuous efforts of all.

The achievements of various sectors like education, roads, and water supply are remarkable, he added.

He urged the officers to adopt at least one person in their respective departments as a NikShay Mitra under Pradhan Mantri T.B. Mukt Bharat Abhiyan.

“TB eradication should be taken as a campaign and especially education institutes and panchayats should come forward for awareness,” he said and appealed to work together to put an end to the growing drug addiction among the youth.

He said that there was a need to enrich the self-help groups, for which special attention should be paid to the market system and quality of the product. He said that it has been brought to his knowledge that all the 248-gram panchayats of the district have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) under the Swachh Bharat Mission, besides all the villages in the district with a population of more than 250 have road connectivity.s

He complimented the team of district administration under Deputy Commissioner and said that it was more challenging to maintain the level of excellence.

The governor hoped that this pace of development should continue so that this district emerges as an example of development in the country.

On the occasion, Deputy Commissioner Hamirpur Hemraj Bairwa, informed about various schemes being implemented in the district.

He said that Rs 16.36 crore was spent on the free treatment of 13.746 thousand people in the district in the last financial year under the Mukhya Mantri Himcare Yojana.

Similarly, Rs 2.83 crore has been spent on 3568 beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat Yojana, he added.

He said that Rs 69 crore was spent on various development works under MNREGA during the last financial year.

Besides, 628 self-help groups were formed in the district through the National Rural Livelihood Mission, and loans worth Rs 4.38 crore were made available to them, he added.