Shanta’s exit jolt for Palampur

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, March 24

With Shanta Kumar not contesting the elections, a number of development works initiated by him are likely to affected in Palampur.

The construction of a ropeway to the snow-covered Dhauladhars is not likely to see the light of day as once Shanta leaves Kangra-Chamba seat, no one will take interest in the project.

The state government at the behest of Shanta initiated a number of steps for early execution of the project. A high-level team of the state government had already visited the site. Shanta had also persuaded private parties to come and execute the project under the PPP mode. The state government had shown no interest in the project and even failed to call the global bids. Shanta had to force the state government to speed up efforts for the preparation of the project report.

Another project, which was on the priority list of Shanta is the Saurabh Van Vihar, a tourist resort constructed in memory of Capt Saurabh Kalia. Shanta had donated funds from his MPLAD and also called the son of Nek Chand from Chandigarh, who constructed a Shahid Samarak by installing statutes of Kargil war heroes.

The project was washed away last monsoon. Since September, Shanta has been making efforts to revive the project, but in the absence of funds, he could not take the work forward.

He had demanded Rs 3 core from CM Jai Ram Thakur for the revival of the project and construction of a protection wall to save the resort from floods in the future. However, the state government failed to release even a penny.