Chandigarh, March 2: Former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair today paid a courtesy visit to Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal at Haryana Bhawan, New Delhi. The Chief Minister warmly welcomed Mr. Blair and a discussion was held for mutual cooperation on subjects like health and basic facilities; by exploring new possibilities. Mr. Blair assured the Chief Minister that his organization Tony Blair Faith Foundation will cooperate in the health sector in Haryana.

On this occasion, the Chief Minister apprised that the state government is providing tertiary level health facilities and has implemented Ayushman Bharat Yojana and CHIRAYU Haryana Yojana to provide health facilities to every needy. He said that the state government is opening medical colleges and nursing colleges in all the districts of the state, which will meet the shortage of doctors and also strengthen the health facilities. “With the cooperation of Tony Blair Faith Foundation, the health sector will expand further and health facilities will be strengthened,” he added.

Transparency ensured by use of Information Technology

Sh. Manohar Lal said that the state government has linked many of its schemes with information technology (IT), which has ensured quick benefits of schemes and services to the citizens. He informed Mr. Tony Blair that the Haryana government has made a new experiment using IT in government work. “Considering every family living in the state as a unit, we have made Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP). In this single document, information of each family member like educational qualification, job, business, self-employment etc. is registered,” he asserted.

The Chief Minister said that now every eligible family is getting the benefit of government schemes and facilities through PPP in a time-bound manner; without making rounds of offices. The state government has made ‘mission merit’, the basis for bringing transparency in government recruitments. He said that now government jobs are available only on the basis of merit. For this, solo registration has been provided using IT; giving relief to the youth. The youth have to register only once for the job. Apart from this, large scale mapping of the entire land of the state is being done and the record of every inch of land will be digitally available.

During the meeting, Sh. Manohar Lal presented Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and a memento to Mr. Tony Blair. Additional Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Director General, Information, Public Relations, Languages and Culture Department, Dr. Amit Agarwal was also present on the occasion.