Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 20: The Chief Minister, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, said here today that the state government had urged the Centre to declare the Gujjars and Gaddis belonging to areas integrated with Himachal Pradesh in 1966 as Scheduled Tribes so that there was no discrimination between these communities in old and new areas of the state. He was presiding over a meeting of the Gujjar Kalyan Board.

The Chief Minister said that to ensure that these communities received the benefit of various programmes launched in the state for the uplift of weaker sections, the state government was giving facilities to Gujjars and Gaddis of merged areas which were being given to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Reiterating his government's resolve for the uplift of Gujjars, Prof Dhumal said the state's Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes corporations were also implementing various schemes for their welfare. He said the Other Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation would benefit 325 families of OBCs by providing loans at subsidised rates to help them become self-employed.