In the 18th Annual Meeting of Gujjar Kalyan Board, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said that socio-economic upliftment of Gujjar community is on the priority agenda of the State Government.
Chief Minister said that dairy farming had been major avocation of the community and it was contributing significantly in bringing white revolution in the State. He said that ‘Pandit Deen Dayal Kisan Baagwan Samridhi Yojna’ had been of great success in modernizing the traditional farming practices and farmers were being encouraged to carry their traditional avocation of farming in a modern system. He said that the scheme had been accepted by the farmers overwhelmingly and record subsidy component of 80 percent was available to them for construction of poly houses and mini and micro irrigation schemes. He said that with a view to modernize dairy farming and facilitate the rural community the State Government launched ‘Doodh Ganga Yojna’ which aims at providing dairy farming community soft loan to purchase animals with subsidy of 25 percent to general category and 33.3 percent to beneficiaries belonging to scheduled caste community. He said that for the benefit of shepherds in the State “Bhed Palak Samridhi Yojna’had been launched which too contained subsidy component. He said that all such schemed aimed at speedy economic upliftment of the rural population by engaging them in their traditional avocation for economic activities through employment and self employment modes.
Chief Minister said that the State Government has constituted community specific Welfare Boards to advise State Government over formulation of policies and programmes for the upliftment of the community specific. He said that non-official members had been nominated to raise concerns relating to general and overall demand of the community so that future planning could be carried by incorporating such suggestions. He said that the State Government had launched various ambitious schemes for the specific traditional avocation. He re-iterated the resolve of the State Government to vouch for the interests of the Gujjar community which happened to be the significant part of the society and thanked non-official members for their valuable suggestions which would go a long way in formulation of more schemes for the betterment of the community at large.
Newly appointed Forest and Tribal Development Minister Khimi Ram Sharma welcomed the Chief Minister and non-official members of the Board and said that the State Government was committed to speedy socio-economic upliftment of the tribal, scheduled caste and backward classes of the society. Dr. P.C.Kapoor Principal Secretary Tribal Development, also welcomed the Chief Minister and conducted proceedings of the meeting.
Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Special Secretaries, Heads of the Departments, Deputy Commissioners, senior officers of concerned departments and non-official members from all over the State attended the meeting.
