Crisis in Himachal Govt casts shadow on Gaggal airport expansion project
Lalit Mohan
Dharamsala, March 1
The crisis in the Congress government after six party MLAs were disqualified as members of the Assembly has cast shadow on major development projects in Kangra district.
The government had announced big infrastructure development projects for Kangra, including the expansion of the Gaggal airport and allocated Rs 2,000 crore for it. Besides a tourism village, the expansion and modernisation of a milk plant at Dagwar near Dharamsala, a zoological park at Dehra and a convention centre in Dharamsala were announced for Kangra. No project has been implemented though the process to set them up has been started. However, with the crisis looming large over the government, people in the region are apprehensive about the future of development projects.
The government had issued a notification last year for the acquisition of land for the Gaggal airport and landowners now could not sell it. The relief and rehabilitation plan for about 2,500 families, who were to be displaced due to the expansion of the Gaggal airport, is in the final stages. Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu has been pushing for the airport expansion while many of his Cabinet colleagues were opposing the project.
Sources said that some senior Cabinet ministers were opposing the government decision to allocate Rs 2,000 crore for the airport expansion project when the state was reeling under a financial crisis. As the position of the Chief Minister has weakened due to the crisis in his government, the airport expansion project may be delayed, if not stopped totally. The tourism industry of Kangra has big hopes from the airport expansion project.
The government is working on establishing a tourism village in Kangra district. A proposal was mooted to allot 100 acres belonging to CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur, for setting up a tourism village near Palampur town. Some Congress ministers and MLAs opposed the allotment of the Palampur university land to the project.
The issue of the campus of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP), which became a flashpoint between Dharamsala MLA Sudhir Sharma, who has been disqualified from the House, and the Chief Minister. The government has withheld Rs 30 crore to be paid for the transfer of forestland at Jadrangal for setting up the CUHP campus since July last year. Sudhir Sharma openly protested and demanded the release of money. The BJP has made it an issue in the Kangra parliamentary constituency.
