The Himachal Pradesh government will take up the matter on providing OBC (Other Backward Class) status to the inhabitants of the remote Dodra-Kwar area with the Centre, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has declared.
His assurance came on Saturday during an event in Shimla’s remote Dodra-Kwar subdivision where he released Rs 91.62 lakh to 509 women beneficiaries of the Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi scheme.
The scheme provides monthly assistance of Rs 1,500 to women aged between 18 and 59 years.
The Chief Minister also laid foundation stones and inaugurated projects worth about Rs 12 crore for the region.
He announced Rs 1 crore each for development of five villages of Dodra-Kwar and Rs 4.5 crore for a bailey bridge to connect the region with Uttarakhand.
Sukhu said, “The state government will take up the matter with the central government on providing OBC status to residents of Dodra-Kwar area,” a statement issued here said.
There are five panchayats in the Dodra Kwar subdivision namely Dodra, Kwar, Jhaka, Jiskun and Dhanderwadi with a population of about 8,000 people.
As Dodra-Kwar remains cut off from mid-November to mid-March following snowfall at Chansal, residents here face huge inconvenience during emergencies as patients have to be airlifted or forced to trek several kilometres to reach Uttarakhand and return.
Sukhu said the state government would create a separate Zila Parishad for Dodra-Kwar so that public representatives can better convey the problems of the region to the state government.
The CM launched the Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi scheme for Shimla district from the Dodra-Kwar subdivision and released 12 month’s aid to 509 eligible women from April 1.
He released an amount of Rs 91.62 lakh to the beneficiary women and Rs 45.45 lakh as six month’s pension at the rate of Rs 1,500 per month to 505 other women of Dodra-Kwar who are receiving social security pension, a statement issued here said.
The scheme was first launched for women in Lahaul and Spiti district and is being implemented in a phased manner.
Income tax payers, women monks permanently staying in monasteries, family members of employees and pensioners of central and state government and employees of Panchayati Raj institutions, local bodies and public undertakings of state and central governments are not exempted from the Samman Nidhi scheme.
The other excluded categories are contract, outsource, daily wagers, part-time employees, ex-servicemen and their widows, Anganwadi workers and helpers, Asha workers, mid-day meal workers, multi task workers and beneficiaries of social security pension.
During his visit, the chief minister also inaugurated the first ATM kiosk in Kwar, which has been installed by the Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Bank.
He said the cooperative bank has provided loans without any guarantee to 200 women of Dodra-Kwar under the Empowered Women Loan scheme, while there were 29,000 women beneficiaries of this scheme in the state.
Taking a jibe at BJP, Sukhu said that BJP leaders are repeatedly spreading lies on the guarantees of the Congress.
Ever since ‘Operation Lotus’ failed and the seats of the Congress increased from 34 to 40, BJP has been misleading people by spreading misleading propaganda, he claimed.