Chandigarh, Jun 16: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Sunday announced establishment of 11 government hostels to provide accommodation to students from oppressed and deprived sections of society.

He also announced that the government will fill up posts reserved for members of Scheduled Castes.

Khattar said from July 1 the state government would organise tours for people belonging to Scheduled Castes to the birthplaces of Sant Kabir and Sant Ravidas in Varanasi and Maharshi Valmiki in Amritsar.

"For this, interested persons can get their registration done at the Deputy Commissioner's Office and they would be provided with second class rail tickets free of cost. For this, initially, 100 devotees each from every assembly constituency (total 90 constituencies) will be given opportunity every year.

"This way, 9,000 pilgrims will visit these places in a year. It will be on first come, first serve basis and a family will be given this benefit only once," he said. He was speaking at the state-level function organised on the eve of birth anniversary of the 15th century poet Kabir in Jind. He said the state government has been carrying out equitable development in the state.

"We have changed the system so that people do not have to visit government offices and more than 450 schemes and services have been made available online under one roof through Antyodaya Sewa Kendra, Saral Kendra or Atal Seva Kendra. About 32 lakh people have availed benefits of these scheme in the past two years," an official release quoted him as saying.  Finance Minister Abhimanyu and Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Kumar were present at the event.