Chamba: The state assembly poll is scheduled to hold in later this year and veteran politician Virbhadra Singh has made a big announcement of regularizing of contract employees after three years of services. Earlier the contract period was five years.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, on the occasion of State Level 70th Himachal Day function at Chamba, also officially launched the un-employment allowance scheme and distributed cheques of Rs. 1000 each to as many as 10 beneficiaries under the scheme.

Speaking on the occasion, Virbhadra Singh said that in an historic move, the State Government had decided to provide unemployment allowance of Rs 1000 per month to unemployment youth having 10 plus two or above qualification whereas the youth with disability would be given unemployment allowance of Rs 1500 per month.

He said that the State Government was giving added priority for upgrading the skills of the unemployed youth in the State so as to make them employable. In order to upgrade the skill of unemployed youth and increase their employability, the Government had implemented Rs. 500 crore Skill Development Allowance Scheme. He said that so far skill development allowance had been provided to 1,52,000 youth. Kaushal Vikas Nigam had also been setup to implement Rs. 640 crore Asian Development Bank (ADB) assisted Skill Development Project to upgrade skill infrastructure in the State and provide employment to around 65,000 youth. The Kaushal Vikas Allowance scheme would also be continued, he added.

Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Secretary AICC Asha Kumar, Chief Secretary VC Pharka, DGP, Sanjay Kumar, Chairman, State Pollution Control Board Kuldeep Singh Pathania, MLAs and officers of the state government were also present on the occasion amongst others.