Excelsior Correspondent
SAMBA, Oct 7: As a part of the outreach programme of Government of India, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Dr. Virendra Kumar, today, visited district Samba and inaugurated a Rural Haat at Swankha Vijaypur. He also held interaction with delegations besides paying obeisance at Baba Chamliyal Shrine at Zero line border in Ramgarh of District Samba.
Dr. Kumar, while inaugurating the Rural Haat in presence of Member Parliament Jugal Kishore, said the initiative of Rural Haat will promote financial self reliance of rural population in the district by establishing a sustainable system of marketing of the local produce through rural markets.
Rural Haat has two phases in which Zone A is presently having kiosk/sheds for displaying rural products, while in proposed Zone B provisions for developing food court, bamboo gateway village art, village chaupal, etc and a parking lot has been conceptualized.
Later, the Union Minister visited the Zero Line of border tourist place Baba Chamliyal, a revered shrine of Dalip Manhas popularly known as Baba Chamliyal.
During the visit, the Minister interacted with various delegations of local sarpanches, youth organizations, PRIs and Border Welfare Organization besides locals.
The delegation members expressed gratitude towards the visiting Minister for visiting their locality for the first time and were hopeful that all their genuine demands shall be appropriately addressed after the intervention of the visiting union minister.
The Minister also interacted with District Administration Samba and exhorted to ensure 100% saturation of central sponsored schemes like Ayushman Bharat, PMAY, Jal Jeevan Missions, Scholarships and other social security schemes.
The Union Minister also visited forward posts and interacted with BSF troops stationed at the BOP Chamliyal.
The minister was accompanied by Advisor to Advisor to Lieutenant Governor Farooq Khan, Secretary Social Welfare Sheetal Nanda, DDC Chairman Keshav Dutt Sharma, DIG BSF Surjit Singh, Deputy Commissioner Samba Anuradha Gupta, Vice Chairperson DDC, and local BDC Chairperson besides other DDC members and district officers.