Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday, 23 June 2026, chaired a joint departmental review of the Tribal Development and Horticulture Departments in Shimla, directing officials to accelerate welfare scheme implementation, fill vacant posts, and strengthen the rural economy.

Context

Addressing the meeting, CM Sukhu emphasised that farmers and horticulture growers must receive maximum benefit from existing government programmes. He also called for a sharper focus on filling departmental vacancies, which he described as a bottleneck in effective delivery of services to rural and tribal communities.

The Chief Minister stated that the state government is providing a minimum support price (MSP) on chemical-free agricultural produce to encourage natural farming — a policy thrust that the Himachal Pradesh government has pursued since coming to power in December 2022.

Policy Backdrop

A significant portion of the review focused on the Forest Rights Act, 2006, the central legislation that vests forest land rights with scheduled tribes and traditional forest-dwelling communities. According to figures presented at the meeting, between March 2023 and March 2026, a total of 636 individual claims and 20 community claims were approved under the Act, with 2,259.24 hectares of land transferred in settlement of those claims.

The HP-SHIVA project — the state's horticulture initiative aimed at fruit-crop diversification — was also reviewed. CM Sukhu directed officials to promote a wider variety of fruit crops and to make better technical support available to growers, signalling an intent to move beyond the dominant apple monoculture in Himachal Pradesh's hill districts.

Stakeholders and Impact

The review covered the functioning of four Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) — located at Nichar, Pangi, Bharmour, and Lahaul — which together serve 1,013 students from tribal communities in some of the state's most remote regions. The Chief Minister instructed that better facilities be made available at all four schools, in line with the central scheme's mandate for quality residential education for tribal children.

Cabinet Minister Jagat Singh Negi and senior departmental officials were present at the meeting. Negi, who holds the Tribal Development portfolio, has been a key figure in coordinating land-rights implementation across the state's tribal belts.

What's Next

The immediate follow-up will centre on the timeline for filling departmental vacancies and the actual disbursement of MSP for natural farming produce in the current financial year. Infrastructure upgrades at the four named Eklavya schools and progress on HP-SHIVA crop-diversification targets are also expected to be tracked in subsequent reviews. The convergence of forest land titling, residential schooling, and chemical-free horticulture incentives reflects a broader state strategy to build more resilient livelihoods in Himachal Pradesh's tribal and hill districts.