THE INCLUSIVE ALL- ROUNDER
Six times chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, Virbhadra Singh doesn’t say it in as many words, but his smiling countenance conveys that the past five years perhaps constitute his most satisfying stint in office. Singh has reason to be content. Piggybacking on the firm foundations that he takes credit for, Himachal Pradesh has confidently surged ahead. The once backward hill state, which came into its own after parts of erstwhile Punjab were included in it in the mid- 1960s, is now vying with— on some parameters even beating— advanced and geographically advantageous states like Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Consider this: besides education and infrastructure, in which HP has recorded the best performance over the past 12 months, the state has done exceedingly well in seven of the 11 categories included in the india today State of the States report. Marginally behind Maharashtra in ‘ Health’, HP is also a close second to winner Kerala in ‘ Governance’. It has notched the third place in ‘ Tourism’, the fifth ranking for ‘ Economy’ and the sixth position for ‘ Entrepreneurship’.
“Relatively lower social and economic disparities” is what a close aide of the chief minister attributes the state’s ‘ Overall’ success to in the SoS report. But there is clearly something to be said for a chief minister who has “woken up at 5 am” and spent every passing day for the past five years “disposing files, meeting and listening to people, and trying to find remedies for their problems”.
Virbhadra Singh is particularly proud of the strides in education.
“We have achieved a significant shift in education, both in qualitative and quantitative terms,” he says, pointing to major infrastructural improvements in educational institutions and the long overdue recruitment of thousands of trained teachers.
Himachal, in the past five years, has opened 193 primary schools, upgraded 1,097 government schools ( higher to senior secondary level), started vocational education in 873 secondary schools, opened 65 degree colleges and set up several nationallevel institutions, such as the Indian Institute of Information Technology, a national law university, a central
“We have achieved a significant shift in education, both in qualitative and in quantitative terms.” VIRBHADRA SINGH Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh
university and an Indian Institute of Management. The state also added three medical colleges— in Chamba, Nahan and Mandi— three engineering colleges, a pharmacy college, five polytechnics and 40 new ITIs.
Ghanshyam Chand, the state’s project director for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, says the real educational success is “the enhancement of learning outcomes of students of elementary classes ( I to VIII) by 15- 30 per cent in academic year 2016- 2017”. Much of this is because of systemic reforms, such as e- review and e- monitoring, online school development plan, e- tracking of delivery of textbooks in schools in the state’s remotest parts, and digitisation of scholastic assessment at the elementary level. All this was achieved by increasing the expenditure on education— from Rs 3,773 crore in 2012- 13 to Rs 5,824 crore in 2016- 17.
Infrastructure, particularly improved road connectivity, is the other big success of the Virbhadra government. The state’s impressive performance in building, improving and maintaining roads has been acknowledged by the Narendra Modi government too. For surpassing by over 359 km its target of constructing 500 km of roads to connect 120 rural habitations in 2016- 17 under the
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana ( PMGSY), Himachal was awarded a performance incentive of Rs 86 crore. The demonstrated capacity to build roads in some of the most hostile mountain terrains has prompted the Centre to raise Himachal’s PMGSY target for 2017- 18 to 1,700 km.
Today, only 399 of 2,468 villages with under- 250 residents remain to be connected by roads. Ashwani Kumar Abrol, who heads PMGSY projects in the state as chief engineer, says roads to many of the remaining habitations are held up only because the mandatory environmental clearances are pending.
Himachal’s other big infrastructure success has been the completion of a $ 377 million World Bank- funded project to upgrade 10 core roads to double- lane, close- to- national highway standards. R. K. Verma, the civil engineer heading the project, says “355 km of the targeted 435 km has been completed and opened to traffic”. The remaining stretch, 80 per cent of which is ready, is expected to be completed by December, using state government funds.
The 10 roads are the main traffic corridors connecting each of the state’s 10 districts. The Theog- Kot Khai- Khada Pathar- Hat Kothi- Rorhu highway, which gives never- before access to the state’s ‘ Apple Bowl’, is at a height of 2,000- 2,500 metres, where not only is the terrain challenging but the work season, owing to snowfall, woefully short. “We have completely redefined what a highway in the high Himalayas can look like,” says Verma. “Himachal Pradesh has set a whole new benchmark in road construction.”