Forest minister promises district status for Nurpur

Tribune News Service

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, September 1

With the Assembly elections due in the state in the next couple of months the issue of giving district status to Nurpur subdivision of Kangra district has once again come to the fore.

Minister for Forests Rakesh Pathania, in his election rallies being held in Nurpur area, has claimed that if elected in the elections he would ensure that Nurpur was upgraded as a district.

Pathania said, “Nurpur has already got the post of Suprintendent of Police and, if elected, I would ensure that the area gets deputy commissioner also.”

Pathania has been claiming that he had been fighting for the district status to Nurpur area for the last two decades.

It was only due to his active lobbying, the Forest Minister said, that police district status has been given to Nurpur.

The Congress, on the other hand, has alleged that the demand for district status at this stage was an election gimmick.

Ajay Mahajan, district president of Congress, said that if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wanted to give district status to the area it would have given it since it was in power for more than four-and-a-half years.

Even the SP office to Nurpur has been opened up at the fag end of its term. No office and infrastructure has been given to the SP posted here.

Mahajan alleged that the BJP wanted to divert the attention of people from key issues such as rising unemployment, increasing prices of essential commodities and discrimination against Kangra by the present government.

The issue of carving out three more districts out of Kangra, the biggest district of the state, always becomes an election issue near Assembly polls.

However, no government has been able to implement the decision fearing strong reaction from people from different areas of Kangra.

Besides, political parties also fear that in case new districts are carved out of Kangra similar demand might crop up from other areas of Himachal opening Pandora’s box for the state government.

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