HP to seek Shanan project from Punjab

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 24

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh will raise the issue of transfer of the 110 mw Shanan Project near Jogindernagar in Mandi to Himachal as it was wrongly allocated to Punjab under the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966.

“The term of the project lease with Punjab is getting over so we will raise the issue of giving the power project located near Jogindernagar to Himachal,” said the Chief Minister. He said Himachal had been raising the issue which will again echo at a meeting of the Northern Zonal Council, to be held in Delhi tomorrow.

The project came into being based on an agreement between Raja Joginder Sen of erstwhile Mandi state and the Secretary of State of India in Council on March 3, 1925.

The project, commissioned on March 10, 1933, was the only project in Northern India which supplied power to undivided Punjab and Delhi.

The project is under the control of the Punjab State Electricity Board and the entire profit from it is going to Punjab.

The Assembly has on several occasions passed resolutions urging the Centre to give the project to Himachal. The issue has been raised each time at the Northern Zonal Council meeting but without any results.

The Chief Minister said Himachal would also seek the expediting of the Renuka (Himachal) and Kishau (Uttarakhand) hydropower projects. The two dams have been conceived to fulfil the growing water requirement of Delhi.

“We will also urge our neighbouring states to pay the Rs 4,200 crore power arrears from the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) projects due to us,” he said.

Virbhadra also said another issue which affected apple growers was the stiff competition from the apple imported from abroad due to low duty. “We will seek granting of special product status to apple so that the import duty on apple can be enhanced and growers can get good price for their produce,” he said.

The Chief Minister will also attend the meeting of the Niti Ayog where he will plead the case for maintaining the special category status for Himachal so that the funding pattern of 90:10 continues as was the system under the Planning Commission.