The Newz Radar
DHARAMSHALA: On the opening day of five-day winter session of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly at Tapovan in Dharamshala on Tuesday (December 19, 2023), Opposition BJP MLAs raised questions on the status of damaged schools and other educational institutions in the aftermath of the recent rain disaster.
BJP MLA from Nachan Vinod Kumar sought to know about the loss to educational institutions in Himachal and also the details about his constituency.
Replying to the question, Education Minister Rohit Thakur said 1,057 institutions had suffered a loss of Rs 69.27 crore across the state in the rain disaster. He said 20 institutions were damaged in Nachan Assembly constituency and the loss had been pegged at Rs 72 lakh loss.
To a question by leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur whether the lives of students were at risk in damaged schools, Rohit Thakur said that wasn’t the case. He, however, said priority for repair was being given to completely damaged institutions. He said extra money had been sought from the Finance department for the purpose.
Ani BJP MLA Lokinder Kumar sought to know the status of the tender process for repairing damaged projects under Jal Shakti Department in his constituency. To this, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri replied that it was not a question, and that a related RTI query had been filed, which had been replied. Agnihotri also said that the way the question was asked, it appeared it had been “written by some Executive engineer or a contractor”.
Earlier, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania appealed to all the members for “constructive cooperation” in the House. After this, the proceedings of the House started with the national anthem. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu introduced in the House the inclusion of Rajesh Dharmani and Yadvinder Goma in the cabinet. After this, obituary references were taken up and condolences were paid on the demise of the former Assembly members. A condolence resolution was presented in the House on the demise of former Chamba MLA Balkrishan Chauhan.
