In rural Himachal Pradesh, 32% shortage of doctors, claims Theog MLA

“Around 65 per cent of the posts of medical lab attendants, lab assistants and operation theatre assistants are lying vacant, while in the irrigation department, there is a 90 per cent shortage of assistant engineers,” he alleged in the House.

Singha added that 83,000 trees have been cut due to major projects such as highways and hydel projects while only around 17,000 trees have been felled under the Forest Rights Act for local development activities. He said that the government should consider re-investigation of the Gudiya rape-and-murder case as demanded by her parents. He also alleged that there are irregularities under the

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana reported from a panchayat which has been adopted by BJP president JP Nadda.
Singha said that Governor Bandaru Dattatraya hailed the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K but local autonomy in states like Himachal Pradesh and the northeastern states also stands threatened now. “The removal of section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act has already been demanded once by Punjab,” he said.

Calling the communal violence in Delhi “most unfortunate”, he said that every Indian makes up the country and the “Gujarat model will not work in Delhi”.

Schools without regular teachers
Chamba MLA Pawan Nayyar said that two schools in his constituency are running without a regular teacher while more than 140 schools only have a single teacher. Dalhousie MLA Asha Kumari said that there are some schools that have five teachers against a student strength of less than 70 while many other larger schools are functioning with only one or two teachers. She recommended “strength-wise rationalisation” of teacher deputation.

Welcoming the suggestion, education minister Suresh Bhardwaj said that due to retirements, promotions and transfers, teacher vacancies keep cropping up, especially in Chamba, Sirmaur and Shimla districts.

“But we have expedited the process of filling up vacancies and got an approval of filling nearly 6,000 vacancies from the cabinet. Around 6,240 appointments have already been made during the last two years,” he said.

‘Industries need more incentives’

Lakhvinder Singh Rana, MLA from Nalagarh, an industrial hub, said that industrialists in the state are not getting adequate incentives from the state while Ram Lal Thakur from Naina Devi said that in Parwanoo, around 65 per cent industrial units have shut down leading to loss of jobs on a massive scale.