Rise in COVID cases after return of state's residents: Himachal Pradesh CM

Himachal Presh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that re is a ticeable increase in COVID-19 cases in state following return of residents who were stranded in or parts of country, especially in containment zones with many cases.

dressing a press conference in Dharamshala on Saturday, chief minister reiterated that previous government h any experience to tackle a pandemic-like situation of such proportions as COVID-19 but asserted that government was handling it well.

state has reported a total of 3,151 coronavirus cases till Friday with 13 deaths so far.

“During this pandemic, entire world including India is facing an ecomic crisis. Himachal [Presh] too suffered an ecomic loss of around Rs 1,300 crore in first quarter of financial year 2020-21. Our financial liabilities have increased by Rs 737 crore due to some budget anuncements," Thakur said.

He ded that salaries, ws and pensions of government employees have been disbursed on time thanks to Central government that has t reduced state's financial dues.

Thakur ded that private sector including tourism, transport and or businesses h faced its worst crisis and revenue loss is estimated to be around Rs 30,000 crore but re are green shoots with se sectors slowly coming back on track.

Though public movement is almost unrestricted in country after Unlock 3, he claimed that HP is only state in rth India that is still registering incoming people entering state to keep a track of ir contacts for monitoring during pandemic.

Bringing back stranded people of HP was duty of state government, Thakur said, ding that around 2.5 lakh Himachalis were brought back so far by state government from rest of country.

CM said many talented people with various skills have also returned to state during this period and government has me provisions to enable m register online to link m to relevant industries for re-employment.

He said, “Some people criticised our guidelines for tourists but ne of tourists have been reported positive for coronavirus so far. After Unlock 1, we opened public transport with initial occupancy at just 10 per cent but it is w picking up slowly and has reached 40 per cent.” He said government is w emphasising on pace of development works so that ecomy could be geared up. “We came to kw that around Rs 12,000 crore are lying unspent in various departments. So, we have instructed officials to take up se works on priority,” chief minister furr said.