17th July 2009

Himachal Pradesh has done it once again. Yes, it has maintained the first position in the implementation of Twenty-Point Progreamme amongst all the States in the Country by attaining 92 percent achievement upto  February during the financial year 2008-09, the last but one month of the financial year. This achievement is two percent more then the Gujarat, four percent Uttrakhand and five percent Andhara Pradesh the four top States that had been ranked in the implementation of this programme.

The main thrust of the Twenty Point Programme is poverty alleviation, employment generation housing, education, family welfare & health, protection of environment and other schemes having a bearing on the quality of life, especially in rural areas.

Under Employment Generation Programme, 8, 17,364 job cards have been issued in the State during the period thereby generating employment of 1.54 crores mandays by giving wages worth Rs. 171 crores .

Under Individual Swaranjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna percent achievement of the State had been 517 as 8619 individual swarojgars have been assisted against a target of 1886 fixed for the year. Karnataka follows Himachal Pradesh in it whose percent achievements are 470. This speaks about tremendous performance of the State. Under Swaranjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna the achievement of the State is 318 percent. As many as 3486 individual ST Swarojgaries and 5612 individual women swarojgaries have been assisted from April, 2008 to February 2009 under this scheme.

In the formation of Self Help Group the Himachal Pradesh has surpassed the target by achieving 104 percent performances by setting up 6630 Self Help Groups against a target of 603 fixed for the period.                         

Under Food Security (Antodaya Anna Yojna) the achievement of the State is 102 percent. The State had distributed 77,580 tonne foodgrains under the Scheme upto February, 2009. Under Targeted Public Distribution Scheme the State had achieved almost 100 percent target by distributing 4.21 lakh tonne foodgrains to the people.

The State's performance under Accelerated Rural Water supply Programme had remained 103 percent. 4610 habitation had been covered in the State against a target of 4410 fixed for the period.

The achievement in assisting the Scheduled Castes families in their socio-economic uplift had also been very good. As many as 49000 families had been assisted in the State during the period.

The State's achievement under Universalization of ICDS Scheme, functionalizing of Anganwaries had been 101 percent and 100 percent respectively.

The State's performance under Afforestation Programme had been 102 percent. 18,705 hectare area was covered under plantation against a target of 18,326 hectares and 1.21 crores saplings were planted against a target of 1.19 crores during the period.

The spectacular achievements of the State under this poverty alleviation programme vindicate that the State was heading in a big way to ensure the welfare of common people especially poor and downtrodden.