Palampur: Don’t transfer Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University land for tourism village, say NGOs
Palampur, July 21
Six NGOs of Palampur will submit a memorandum to the Governor of Himachal Pradesh Shiv Partap Shukla, who is also the Chancellor of HP Agriculture University, for issuing direction of the state government not to take over 100 hectares of university land for setting up a tourism village.
The signatories of the memorandum are the People’s Voice, Him Jan Kalyan Sanstha, INSAF, Om Manglam, Geeta Peeth and the Bharatiya Jan Seva Sanstha.
Talking to reporters here today, Parveen Sharma, head of INSAF NGO, stated that the university should not transfer land to the Tourism Department for setting up a tourism village as it would hamper research and teaching activities of the university.
Sharma said the university had already transferred large chunks of lands to the state government in the past. Now, the university had been left with only 398 hectares, including 100 hectares under tea, for which the university had no authority to change its land use as per the HP Land Ceiling Act.
“If 100 hectares are given to the Tourism Department, the university will be left with only 198 hectares of agricultural land. The university will be unable to continue with research and training programmes with limited land. Besides, the university has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to set up a seed production unit. The university has allocated 75 hectares for the project. Under such circumstances, the state government should not acquire 100 hectares to the Tourism Department,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Ashok Kumar Sarial, a former Vice-Chancellor of the university, said the state government should not divert the university land for non-education purposes. In the present situation when the university had limited land in its possession, there was no justification in transferring the university land for setting up tourism villages and casinos. He added that the state government should focus on opening educational institutions on the university campus instead of a tourism village, which would hit training, teaching and research activities.
Research, teaching to be affected
The university should not transfer land to the Tourism Department for setting up a tourism village as it would hamper research and teaching activities of the university. — Parveen Sharma, head of INSAF NGO
