HRD team to inspect CUHP site in Jadrangal today

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 31

A team of experts, including forest officials and officials from the Union Ministry of Human Resources, will inspect the site proposed by the state government in Jadrangal area in Dharamsala Assembly constituency for setting up the campus of the Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) on September 1.

Minister for Urban Development Sudhir Sharma confirmed that he had received a letter from the Under Secretary of the Union Ministry for Urban Development regarding the arrival of the team.

The arrival of team had been awaited for the past more than six months since the CUHP authorities had submitted the detailed plans for setting the university campus at Jadrangal to union ministry for HRD.

This is for the third time that inspection of sites was being carried out for finalising of the campus of CUHP since the university was established in Kangra district in 2010 by the previous UPA government.

Earlier during the stint of previous BJP government in the state the team of union ministry for HRD had inspected sites proposed at Dharamsala and Dehra for setting up the university campus. The sites were approved for setting up head office of the university and some schools at Dharamsala and majority campus at Dehra. The previous BJP government also transferred about 80 acre land in Dehra in the name of the CUHP.

However, after the change of government in the state in 2012, the Congress government rejected the idea of setting up majority campus at Dehra. It proposed a site in the Indrunag area near Dharamsala for setting up the CUHP campus. Once again the team of officials set by union ministry for HRD visited to inspect the site. It, however, rejected the site proposed by the state government near Dharamsala on the plea that it fell in active sliding zone.

The state government then proposed 600-acre land in Jadrangal near Chamunda Devi temple for setting up the CUHP campus. The union ministry for HRD had initially raised some objections to the proposal sent by the CUHP for setting up campus in Jadrangal. The team was now being sent after the CUHP submitted a revised proposal.

Sources here said that though a majority of CUHP management was in favour of setting up the campus at Jadrangal since it was close to the district quarters there were some concerns that may hamper the approval of site in Jadrangal. The site proposed in Jadrangal is not consolidated and is available in pieces with habitations dotting it.

A political tussle was also going on over the issue. The BJP MP from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur and his team of MLAs have been lobbying hard for acceptance of initial proposal for setting up a twin campus of CUHP at Dharamsala and Dehra. He had met the new union minister for HRD Prakash Javadekar over the issue. Interestingly, he had the support of Rajya Sabha member of Congress Viplove Thakur who had openly criticized CM Virbhadra Singh for proposing CUHP campus at Dehra.

On the other hand the Congress MLA from Dharamsala and minister Sudhir Sharma, who had been lobbying to keep university in his constituency, had the support of BJP MP from Kangra, Shanta Kumar.