Raghubir Bali heads Himachal tourism development corporation
Another Congress leader from Kangra, Vishal Chambial, has been appointed vice-chairman of the Himachal Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation
Nagrota Bagwan MLA Raghubir Singh Bali, 43, has been appointed chairperson of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) and vice-chairperson of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Board with the rank of cabinet minister.
The HPTDC looks after the management of commercial properties of the tourism department, including hotels and restaurants, besides organising tour packages.
The tourism development board advises the government in devising policy for tourism promotion and publicising Himchal as a destination besides undertaking human resource development and improvement of tourist destinations.
The notifications in this regard were issued on Thursday.
Bali, the son of Congress leader late GS Bali, began his political career with the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in 1996 when he studied at a Kangra college. He was also a part of the NSUI in Bengaluru, where he studied hotel management.
He was made Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress general secretary in 2004 and appointed its vice-president in 2009. Bali became the AICC secretary co-in-charge of West Bengal in February 2020 and he was the observer of Pathankot district for the Punjab assembly elections last year. He led the Congress’ Rozgar Sangharsh Yatra in Kangra and Hamirpur parliamentary constituencies.
As Congress nominee, he defeated BJP’s Arun Kumar by 15,892 votes, the highest among all Congress candidates in the state, in the 2022 assembly elections. He was the third richest candidate in the fray with a net worth of ₹92 crore.
“I am thankful to the chief minister and national leadership for entrusting me with the responsibility. We are going to come with a holistic tourism promotion plan with security and peace as our unique selling point,” Bali said.
He said the emphasis will be laid on improvement of services in the hotels and restaurants to provide quality facilities.
“We will also promote adventure sports in a big way,” he added.
Another Congress leader from Kangra, Vishal Chambial, has been appointed vice-chairman of the Himachal Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation. Chambial is from Lodhwan village in Indora assembly segment.
State industry minister Harshwardhan Chauhan will be the chairman of the board of directors with principal secretary (industries) RD Nazeem, agriculture secretary Rakesh Kanwar, industries director Rakesh Kumar Prajapati, special secretary, finance, Rohit Jamwal, and financial corporation managing director Priyatu Mandal as its directors.
