Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand) [India], June 10 (ANI): On the completion of 11 years of the Modi-led government, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday expressed gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi and highlighted the BJP-led NDA government's achievements.

'Today, under the leadership of respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 11 years of service, good governance and poor welfare are going to be completed. On behalf of the whole of Uttarakhand, I thank the Prime Minister for establishing a strong, capable and safe nation,' the chief minister remarked.

CM Dhami further said that under PM Modi's leadership, many welfare schemes have been launched for the poor. 'Crores of people are benefiting from them,' he said, adding, 'The poverty rate has decreased by more than five times and 27 crore people have come out of the poverty line in 11 years.'

CM Dhami also highlighted schemes launched by Modi-led government, including: Jan Dhan Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, PM Awas Yojana and Jal Jeevan Mission, according to a release.

He further highlighted development schemes inaugurated in Purola region of Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand.

'Today, 55 development schemes worth Rs 210 crores were inaugurated and their foundation stones were laid in Purola block. It is our endeavour that whatever announcements we make should be fulfilled,' the chief minister said.

Earlier today, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced initiatives to digitise the state's dialects, folk tales, folk songs, and literature.

He proposed creating an e-library to store and showcase Uttarakhand's folk literature, developing audio-visuals based on folk tales, organising weekly competitions in schools to promote local dialects and hosting a large-scale festival to celebrate Uttarakhand's language and literature.

The Chief Minister said, 'Work should be done towards digitization of Uttarakhand's dialects, folk tales, folk songs and literature. For this, an e-library should be created. Along with increasing the collection based on folk tales, audio-visuals should also be made on them.'

Dhami further stressed that competitions, based on local dialect language should be organised once a week in schools, including creating a linguistic map of Uttarakhand's dialects

'A festival of Uttarakhand language and literature should be organised on a large scale, in which litterateurs from all over the country should be invited. A linguistic map of the dialects of Uttarakhand should be made.'

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami was speaking during the general assembly and management executive committee meeting of Uttarakhand Bhasha Sansthan in the secretariat. The Chief Minister also appealed to the people of the state to promote the use of books.

In the meeting, it was decided that the amount of Uttarakhand Sahitya Gaurav Samman will be increased from 5 lakhs to 5.51 lakhs.

The state government will also award long-term literary service award, the award money of which will amount to Rs 5 lakhs. A young writer competition will be organized to encourage young writers towards the official language, Hindi. (ANI)