Exclusive interview with Himachal Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla

The Governor is actually the representative of the Centre. Himachal is a state which is a hilly state. Yes, being a hilly state, the central government itself pays about 80% of its development expenditure. As a result, as a governor, I have a role to review the money given by the central government to see whether it is being spent properly or not. It is the job of the state government to carry out development work. My job is only to see if the state government is diverting the money for which it has been given. Generally, the central government has now become alert and it is giving the money directly to the account of the item of which it is concerned. Otherwise, people use that money in their treasury and spend as much as necessary after taking it to the treasury. Sometimes, the money given by the central government is not spent, it remains stagnant. So in their treasury, you can see how much profit we have. As a Governor, I have a role to review the money given by the Central government to see whether it is being spent properly or not. It is the job of the state government to carry out development work. You can see in their treasuries how much benefit they have. We're not in a date. Our work is so much that they do not even remain in deficit. But whatever money has been given to the state government, the money from the central government should be properly used for proper purposes. The rest of the work is done by the state government, the development work is done by them, the governor does not do it and I do not do it. But I do review so that the Centre's money is fully utilised for the benefit of the people of the state.

Look at it from the point of view of tourism. Himachal is really very famous for tourism. People come. One word is "harness". Yes, the people who have come from the tourism point of view should be properly exploited, which is also for the benefit of the state and also for the benefit of the tourists. That's where tourism thrives. There was a slight disturbance in the middle order, and that disturbance was due to natural vision, due to which the tourists were diverted to Jammu and Kashmir and other places. But now that they have come to Himachal again, I feel that when they come to Himachal, those tourists work to benefit Himachal, they work to benefit the state. Yes, I can definitely say that the people of Himachal do not misbehave with those tourists in any way. This is the greatest pleasant, which should be for any tourist center. So, I am satisfied that the tourists who go there definitely come satisfied.

I feel that the connectivity of roads in Himachal is better than other states relative to hilly states. There are good, roads up to the very interior, but still being a completely mountainous state I can't say that's everywhere. But still, in general, wherever there should be means to go, there are in Himachal. Just yesterday I went to a place, one is the place of Om Swamiji. I found that there should be connectivity. It was a very rugged situation. So I felt it yesterday. Earlier I used to say that Himachal is far ahead in this, but after seeing it yesterday, I felt that no, there is still a lot to do. So there is more than other places, yet a lot needs to be done in Himachal.

For landslides, etc., at present, they are making arrangements which are kutcha hills. Being a kutcha hill, it seems that if the hill slowly moves the soil, it causes damage. It also damages the road, people are going, it damages the vehicles and the loss of money is natural because the roads are cut. So they are managing it, they are covering the hills, they are covering the main roads so that if the soil moves, it gets entangled in it, so that it cannot come down. One is doing this work by the road organization and since the work of the road organization is done by the central government because the state government does not have enough resources to do it on its own. It is the Centre's own money. So I would like to thank the Central Government for this, I would like to thank the Prime Minister, I would also like to thank Gadkari ji that he is already working by increasing vigilance in view of the incident that happened in Himachal last time.

I think I was from student politics. I had a connection with the student council in student politics. Yes, I was in university politics. There was another period when there was an Emergency in the country, in which I was in jail for 20 months. When he came out under MIS, he continued to work as a student council. I came into contact with the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1983. In 1989, the Bharatiya Janata Party gave me a ticket for the first time from Gorakhpur and I was elected to the Vidhan Sabha. Since then it has been there four times and it has been till 2002. We lost the election in 2002, but then we continued to do organisational work. In 2016, I was elected to the Rajya Sabha. In 2017, he became the Union Minister, hence the Minister of State. Now, for the last two years, I have been the Governor of Himachal Pradesh. The third year is going on. So this is a political journey. Yes, and I think I am the nurturer of one ideology, that is the national ideology. I have been working as a volunteer in the student council and as a member of that ideology, today I am proud that whatever work I have been assigned, I understand in my own way that I did the right thing. The party believed. Now a different work has started in Himachal, I am doing that. The role of the Governor naturally extends to Raj Bhavans, but I did a little different role and on the basis of my experience, the Prime Minister of our country specified to me that this is a mess in Himachal. It was a mess that people were getting addicted to drugs. So I started working on it. I'm working slowly now.