Yearlong golden jubilee celebrations of statehood to start from Jan 25, 2021: Himachal CM

Dharamshala: CM Himachal Jai Ram Thakur said that the present state government has completed its 3 years, of which a year was extremely, affected economically by the Covid-19 spread. He said that as there is an indication of continuous reduction in Corona pandemic in the state, the state government has planned to cover the deficit of last year, in 2021 for the development of the state.

He said, “Even during the lockdown and unlock phases of this pandemic our government kept its virtual and actual connection with the public in 42 assembly constituencies, so that the development works should keep going on. During the Covid period we have done inaugurations and laid foundation stones of projects worth rs 3500 crore.”

He added that Himachal is celebrating its 50 anniversary of the statehood day (Golden Jubilee), “we will celebrate it during the whole of the year after 25 January 2021 and planned 51 major events in the different parts of the state including water sports events in Pong Lake.”

Addressing a press conference at Dharamshala on Saturday CM said that the election of civic bodies is being held in the state and government had issued SOP for it so that fear of the spread of Covid 19 is avoided. He said that even if the number of corona cases raised during the process of these elections we are ready to face it and the concerned departments have already been alerted.

“We have asked the candidates to avoid organising big rallies during canvassing and mass lunches (Dhams) as victory celebrations”, he added. He said that as per the figures of the last few weeks, the trend of covid is towards the decline in the state, but still we are not allowing gatherings of more than 50 persons.

Regarding the arrangements to tackle Covid, the government has started a pre fabricated hospital at Shimla and another three are coming up soon in Tanda, Mandi and Nalagarh. He said that earlier the state had only 50 Ventilators which now we have 700 ventilators.

When asked about air connectivity in the state CM said, “We have approached the finance commission with two priority projects, a greenfield airport at Mandi and expansion of the Dharamshala airport at Gaggal.” These demands were also conveyed to the Hon’ble PM.

Regarding bird flu in the Pong Dam area CM informed that till date 3464 migratory birds have died due to H5N1 flu in the area. Few crows were also found dead in some other areas of the state, which is really a serious concern and the experts are keeping a watch over the situation. ”90% of these deaths have been reported of Bar Headed Geese, though 24 species of these migratory birds have been reported killed. 55 teams of wildlife and 10 teams of animal husbandry departments are deployed in the area. We have restricted 1 km area as an alert zone and next 10 kms as surveillance zone to restrict human and animal activity in the area.”

He said that there is no case reported of such infection in the poultry industry so far.
A presentation on bird flu was also given.