Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today paid floral tributes Dr Y S Parmar, the first chief minister of the state, on his 111 th Birth Anniversary.
He paid the tributes at the statue of Parmar at Ridge and later at a function organised in the assembly.
Former Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, MP and co-incharge HPCC Ranjeet Ranjan, Secretary AICC Asha Kumari were present on the occasion.
It was because of the struggle led by Parmar that this hill state retained its identity and got statehood, Singh said.
The statehood set the pace for speedy development to fulfil the dreams of Parmar, who wanted the state's people to have their own identity, he said.
His vision was clear and the strenuous task to realise this vision was fulfilled on attaining of statehood in 1971, the chief minister said.
"The people of the state willremain indebted to him for his tireless efforts for getting it a separate political identity," Singh said.
Speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail said Parmar had a lot of knowledge of human psychology and was a great litterateur.
The Dr Y S Parmar Chair in collaboration with the Department of History organised a special lecture at the Himachal Pradesh University
Dr Laxman S Thakur, who heads the Chair, spoke on the topic 'An Architect of Modern Himachal: Contribution of Y S Parmar in the Making of Himachal Pradesh'.
He highlighted the contribution of Parmar in the integration of 30 big and small states into Himachal Pradesh in 1948.
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