Dharamsala residents protest delay in Jadrangal land transfer to Central University of Himachal Pradesh

Dharamsala, January 18

Residents of the Dharamsala Assembly constituency organised a dharna at the Kachehri crossing here today in protest against the failure of the state government to deposit Rs 30 crore for the transfer of forestland at Jadrangal in the name of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) for the construction of its campus.

The protesters alleged that the government had not deposited Rs 30 crore for the transfer of land to the CUHP since July last year. They said that though several representations had been made to the government for the construction of the CUHP campus at Jadrangal, but to no avail. They threatened to intensifying their agitation if the government did not transfer the land to the CUHP at the earliest.

Meanwhile, sources said that the BJP was planning to launch an agitation over the issue in the coming week. The BJP had decided to gather 2,000 workers for the protest over the issue on January 27. Sanjay Sharma, state BJP spokesperson, said that the party could decide to gherao Congress MLAs from Kangra over the issue. He added that it was an irony that the Congress MLAs from Kangra were keeping mum over the delay in the construction of the CUHP campus in Dharamsala.

He said the Central Government had released Rs 250 crore for the construction of the university campus at Jadrangal but the funds had not been utilised for the intended purpose as the state government was not transferring land to the CUHP. He added that this clearly illustrated the bias of the Congress government against Kangra. The people of Kangra would gherao the Congress MLAs for not resolving the issue.