Effective steps will be taken to make Himachal a self reliant state by 2027 and the most prosperous by 2032, stated Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu while presiding over a meeting to discuss the role of National Resource Management and Agro-ecology towards achieving the motto of 'Samridh Himachal-Green Himachal' here today.
To make Himachal a Green and Clean State, the government was working towards judiciously utilizing the existing natural resources of the State, reiterated Sh. Sukhu. He said that to create opportunities of self employment for the youth, medium and small scale industries play a pivotal role and the government was serious in setting up such units in the State so that the youth could also contribute towards strengthening the economy.
The Chief Minister said that the Drone technology can play an important role for construction, agriculture, delivery of small logistics, medicines, food etc and can be adopted as a new mode for self employment. He said that the government would support the drone based enterprise development on mission mode by providing technical training to drone pilots and all kind of support needed.
This will be a better option for the youth to start with the Government support as the drone courses would be started in State Industrial Training Institutes (ITI's). He said that as many as 15,000 drone driven services would be created in near future. To harness rooftop Solar energy and other renewals to open doors of self employment, the Chief Minister said that every 100 Solar rooftops on homes could create job for two individuals besides saving and earnings for the households and revenue generation for the State.
The target is to bring 10 percent, i.e 16 lakh sloping roof households and buildings under the Solar Rooftop Subsidy Scheme on Mission mode for which the exercise has been started. The youth can earn by selling excess electricity produced to the Government for which the government mulls to raise the price of electricity purchase and facilitate bank loans in near future.
The Chief Minister said that tourism contributes 7% to the State's GDP. The tourist influx seems to be increasing every year and Himachal wants to leapfrog into a Green tourist friendly destination. The State Government under the Rs.680 crore Rajiv Gandhi Start–up Scheme has already made a provision of 50 percent subsidy on purchase of e-vehicles for the youth so that they can earn their livelihood.
The Chief Minister also emphasized upon high value agriculture produce and stated that as many as 2603 farmers have taken over to the high value agriculture production. Himachal has become the first State to procure natural farming produce from the farmers. The wheat was being procured at Rs. 40 per kg and maize at Rs. 30 per kg.
Earlier, Director National Resource Management and Agro-ecology gave a detailed presentation on the Green and Clean initiatives of the State and the measures to be adopted to make it 'Smridh Himachal' (prosperous State).
Agriculture Minister, Chander Kumar, Education Minister Rohit Thakur, Technical Education Minister Rajesh Dharmani, MLA's Sanjay Awasthi, Kewal Singh Pathania, Suresh Kumar, Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena and other senior officers were present on the occasion.