Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has called on the Central Government to adopt distinct norms for hilly States like Himachal Pradesh for sanctioning projects under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transport (AMRUT) Scheme, keeping in view the difficult terrain and topography. He said that projects under AMRUT were sanctioned on the basis of population and the current population based criteria was unsuitable for Himachal Pradesh and needed to be relaxed to take maximum benefit under the Scheme.

The Chief Minister was speaking during a meeting with Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal in Himachal Bhawan, Chandigarh today.

He said that the recommendations of 15th Finance Commission should also be reviewed periodically as the cost of projects gets escalated overtime. He said that Himachal Pradesh was one of the best performing state under the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY) and urged for funds to be released for PMAY-2 once the funds under PMAY-1 were fully utilized.

The Chief Minister urged the Central Government to amend the tender policy system, reducing the period from 60 days to 10 days to accelerate the pace of development works. He said that system monitoring was an important concept and focus should be laid on it.

The Chief Minister urged the Ministry of Power to allow one MW capacity solar systems with battery backups for border areas like Spiti to mitigate the hardships caused by snow and adverse weather. He said that Rs. 362 crore has been earmarked to ensure uninterrupted power supply in these areas.

It was informed in the meeting that clean cities of Himachal Pradesh may be declared Safai Mitra Surakshit Shehar, which would attract additional funding from the central government to enhance cleanliness efforts.

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs praised the performance of Himachal Pradesh and assured full support from the Union Government. He said that a proposal of developing new township at Jathia Devi near Shimla has been received and was under process. He said that solid waste management plants may be set up in Municipal Corporations because big projects were not feasible in a small state like Himachal Pradesh. He said that the concept of Sanjha Bazar should be explored in Himachal Pradesh so that Self Help Groups could sell their products at one place to earn their livelihood.

The Union Minister suggested the state to increase power production and the state should ensure maximum utilization of running water to harness the hydro power.

Urban Development Minister Vikramaditya Singh, Additional Secretary MoHUA Satinder Pal Singh, Director AMRUT Gurjeet Singh Dhillon, Principal Secretary Urban Development Devesh Kumar, Director Gopal Chand and other senior officers of Ministry and state government were also present in the meeting