MoU with Singapore govt on satellite township scrapped

Tribune News Service
Shimla, August 27

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The Urban Development Department has cancelled the MoU signed with Singapore Government on August 27 for the setting up of a satellite township at Jathia Devi near here. Now Himachal Urban Development Authority (HIMUDA) will execute the project.

This was stated by Urban Development Minister Sarveen Choudhary while replying to a query on status of applications of people seeking plots and houses from HIMUDA posed by Bikram Singh Jaryal during the Question Hour in the Vidhan Sabha today. It was the previous Congress regime which had signed the MoU and the then minister along with a team of officials and gone to Singapore for the purpose.

Choudhray said the MoU signed during the Congress regime for the satellite township had been cancelled. “The implementation committee has cleared the project and the site plan has been prepared so that HIMUDA can develop it,” she stated.

Replying to a query by Pawan Kajal, Vinod Kumar and Jawahar Thakur, Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj said all efforts were being made to fill vacancies in educational institutions. “We have appointed 355 lecturers besides making 2221 appointments for schools while Congress in its five year rule managed to appoint only 3026 teachers,” he said.

MoU inked during Cong regime 

It was on February 27, 2017 that an MoU had been inked with the Singapore Government during Congress regime for setting up a modern township to decongest the state capita. Singapore was to fund the project and HIMUDA had acquired about 450 bighas of the land at Jathia Devi for the purpose. Though the minister did not specify the reasons disinterest by the Singapore Government following restrictions by the NGT on height of buildings and little headway were being cited as the main reasons for cancellation of the MoU.