It was Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who first spoke about forming Ministry of Happiness three months ago and with today’s decision Madhya Pradesh became the first state in India to announce such a dempartmet.
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The move was announced in April where Chouhan had talked about how mere materialistic possessions did not bring happiness into the lives of people and that it came through positivity in one’s life.
“The Cabinet has chose to constitute Happiness Department in the state”, said Chouhan, who will head the department at present. In a state BJP Convention Shivraj Singh has addressed that “We will make a ‘happiness ministry” to track our growth.’ The happiness of Singh defines that there will be a department of Happiness and not a Ministry. By seeing the public feeling, State Government has made a decision to reconsider the proposal to construct district court building.
In a meeting of the council of ministers, chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, it was also decided that the proposed department would work as a knowledge resource centre on joy.
To give the Anand Vibhag a solid basis for existence, the MP government had apparently studied the measures used by Bhutan, the United Nations, and the USA, to settle the parameters of happiness. “It would chalk out directives/guidelines for coordination between departments in the direction of disseminating happiness in the state”, the release said.
The department will compile and publish survey reports pertaining to status of happiness.
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The Cabinet initially allocated a sum of Rs 3.80 crore for setting up Anand Vibhag that will carry out regular research and experiments.
