Roti, kapda, makaan fine, but Shivraj Singh Chouhan wants to offer ‘happiness’

MP is the first state to announce such a department that will coordinate among other departments and craft polices in a way to increase the level of happiness among its citizens.

Chouhan said material progress alone was not sufficient to make people happy. He said it will take value-based development, spiritual progress and an overall sense of wellbeing for people to lead happy and satisfied lives. (Source: File photo)

THE plans have been scaled down from a ministry to a department but, claims the Madhya Pradesh government, there is no diminishing the happiness.

More than three months after Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan first made the announcement, the state Cabinet on Friday cleared a Happiness Department, scaling it down from a separate ministry but to be still headed by the CM.

The first such initiative in the country, the department will identify and define parameters that make people happy, coordinate among various departments, recommend policy changes and formulate an action plan to “increase the level of happiness and satisfaction” among the state’s more than 7.25 crore population — all on a Rs 3.60 crore budget.