International Lavi Fair at Rampur culminates; Rs 200-cr projects, other development works on the offing

Rampur in Shimla, which hosted the International Lavi Fair from November 11-14, will see several development activities, including projects worth Rs 200 crore by the Jal Shakti Department, Himachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said on Tuesday.

About 36 projects of Jal Shakti Department would be undertaken at a cost of Rs 200 crore in Rampur area, Agnihotri said while speaking at the closing ceremony of four-day International Lavi Fair 2023.

According to local residents, Lavi used to be an international trade festival till 1962 as traders from far off places like Samarkand, Afghanistan, Tibet, Ladakh and other places used to visit Rampur through the Silk Route. However, the fair lost its sheen after the India-China war in that year.

They said, traders from different places used to come to Rampur to sell their goods and the local people also used to purchase household goods during the fair. Now all these commodities are available around the year.

In 1985, it was due to the efforts of former state chief minister Virbhadra Singh that the Rampur Lavi fair was given the status of an international event.

Rampur is considered as the bastion of Virbhadra Singh, father of PWD minister Vikramaditya Singh.

Road development works worth Rs 130 crore would be taken up in Rampur area in this financial year, said Vikramaditya Singh.

Approval of 10 roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in Rampur assembly constituency has been received from the central government, he informed.

The identity created for Rampur by Virbhadra Singh will reach new heights, he said and added that efforts will be made to complete the development works of Virbhadra Singh's time, including the work on Nankhadi College, a degree college in Juri and an engineering college in Kotla. The state government has given a special relief package of Rs 4,500 crore for disaster-affected people but an economic package from the Centre is still awaited, he said and requested the Union government to release the state's claim of Rs 5,000 crore at the earliest, an official statement issued here said.

Heavy rains during July and August had wreaked havoc in the state and rain related incidents claimed lives of 509 people, besides damaging over 15,200 houses and several roads.

According to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the state has suffered losses of about Rs 12,000 crore and demanded that the calamity to be declare as a national disaster. On Tuesday, while announcing various projects for the area, Agnihotri said that the state government will fulfil all its promises and implementation of the old pension scheme for government employees was the first step in this direction.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)