India, July 20 -- As Himachal Pradesh continues to grapple with the devastation caused by cloudbursts, landslides, and flash floods over the past three weeks, chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu faces a formidable challenge of delivering timely relief and rehabilitation. From rushing to disaster-hit areas to engaging with Union ministers, he is leaving no stone unturned to mitigate the aftermath of the second major natural calamity to strike the hill state over the last two years. In a wide-ranging conversation with Executive Editor Ramesh Vinayak at his official Oakover residence in Shimla on Saturday, the 61-year-old senior Congress leader discussed the challenges ahead, his expectations from the Centre, and his key priorities for the second half of his five-year term. Edited excerpts: The latest disaster has inflicted a loss of Rs 1,100 crore. At least 85 human lives have been lost while at least 34 are still missing. The major brunt has been borne by Mandi district and some areas of adjoining Kullu district where a hydro-electric project has suffered a loss of Rs 100 crore. The calamity has also adversely impacted the monsoon tourism. The monsoon broke out only three weeks ago and is still on. We can't predict what is in store for us. It's a result of climate change. Until a few years ago, our state's cold desert region of Lahaul Spiti and Kinnaur used to get barely 10% rainfall which has now touched 30%. Climate change is causing a rising number of cloudbursts which triggered violent flash floods and massive landslides, giving no warning to people living in vulnerable areas. Himachal had never seen so many monsoon cloudbursts before. We have asked the central government to scientifically study the phenomenon of cloudbursts. On home minister Amit Shah ji's instructions, a central team reached Himachal on Friday. I have requested him to personally visit the affected areas. I am hopeful that our state will soon get the first instalment of central funds for relief, rehabilitation and rebuilding the damaged infrastructure. A big challenge we are facing is with regard to relocation of those whose dwellings have been completely obliterated in floods and landslides. One of the big problems Himachal is facing is that roughly 68% of the land in the state is forest land. In most cases, safe relocation is possible only in forest land. But the state government doesn't have power to allow that. So, I have made a case to the Union government to amend the Forest Act and give special permission for diversion of one bigha of forest land for each affected family. They can't be allowed to rebuild their houses in vulnerable stretches. On its part, the state government is dipping into its own resources to give a Rs 7 lakh package to those whose houses were washed away. A team deputed by the Centre had pegged our losses at Rs 9,500 crore. After two years, we just got Rs 2,000 crore as post disaster need assessment funds. Of this, Rs 500 crore was the state's share. We didn't get any special grant from the Union government. We only benefited from the change in the rules of disaster management relief. The state spent Rs 4,500 crore from its own resources to build the damaged infrastructure. We expected the Centre to compensate for that big spend which has put stress on the state's financial resources. I don't see it that way but I certainly expect the Centre to be liberal in disaster compensation and foot the bill of actual expenses on relief, rehabilitation and infra reconstruction. The amount of Rs 1,500 crore that Himachal got for the last calamity was too meagre. We have undertaken stringent enforcement against illegal constructions in flood-prone areas. This includes a ban on any construction in 50 meters of river bed and nullahs. Many vulnerable swathes have been declared ' green areas' where no construction is allowed. It is because of the lessons learnt from 2023 that swift rescue and relief operations were mounted soon after the disaster struck recently, The hill states definitely need a separate allocation in the Union budget. Himachal has five rivers and 34% of its area under cold desert which is covered by glaciers that feed the rivers. The state is expected to preserve the rivers which are a lifeline of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi. But the Centre doesn't consider cold desert under the definition of forest cover which impacts our share in central funds. The definition of forest cover needs to change to the advantage of Himalayan states. Himachal is also pressing for 12% royalty on the power produced by Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB). But both Punjab and Haryana are opposing it and doing injustice to Himachal. In 2011, the Supreme Court had awarded Rs 4,300 crore as our share from the BBMB. But, we have got nothing so far. A legal fight for our legitimate right is the only option for us. At present, the Centre gives special funds for afforestation. But there is no incentive for preserving the forest cover. We have a complete ban on forest cutting but don't get any extra grant in lieu of that. The forests of Himachal serve as the lungs of north India. A Green Fund should have new parameters that reward forest preservation. That will also prevent illegal forest felling. It's not in a good shape. Our debt burden now stands at Rs 95,000 crore. That's because Rs 1,600 crore additional borrowing that we used to get was discontinued after we implemented the Old Pension Scheme for government employees. Our revenue deficit grant that was Rs 11,000 crore in 2016-17, has come down to Rs 3,000 crore. A bulk of our borrowing goes in debt servicing. I have requested the Union finance minister to allow a 2% hike in our borrowing on GST. But the good news is that the state's economy is back on track due to sound policies we have followed in the last two and a half years. Our goal is to make Himachal self-reliant by 2027. We are making good progress in that direction. We had proposed to auction, lease or sell these orchards. But, the high court is not amenable to our proposal. So we will be challenging the order in the Supreme Court. An inquiry is underway. NHAI is using heavy machinery for hill cutting for roads in a hurried manner. Himachal has built roads for decades without damaging the adjacent dwellings. Our thrust has been on 'vivastha parivartan' (systemic changes). We changed or removed several redundant laws for a people-centric and transparent governance. There is no blame for corruption on my ministers. We have focused on boosting the rural economy by promoting livestock rearing. Himachal is the first state to introduce a minimum support price for milk. We have raised MNREGA daily wage by Rs 80. English medium has been started from primary class. We shut down 600 schools that the previous BJP government had opened without budget allocation, rationalised schools with low numbers of students and teachers and set up clusters under the Rajiv Gandhi Day Boarding scheme. As many as 200 such schools will soon be affiliated with CBSE. A robust public health system, high quality school education, fillip to rural economy, tourism, hydropower and data storage will remain the focus areas in the next two and a half years....