Land for Mandi airport yet to be finalised: IPH Minister

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, December 15

The site for the construction of an airport in Mandi has not been finalised, said Minister for IPH Mahender Singh Thakur in the House today while responding to a question from CPM MLA Rakesh Singha.

Singha had asked if as per the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, could the government acquire multi-crop growing land for the airport project. The minister said that as per the provisions of the Act, multi-crop growing land could be acquired in exceptional circumstances.

While responding to a query from Doon MLA Paramjeet Singh, the Minister for Labour said that in the Baddi-Barotiwala and Nalagarh (BBN) area, 60,127 Himachalis were employed in private industries. Paramjeet Singh, however, alleged that data given by government was false. He alleged that there are 2,500 industries in the BBN area and they were not employing 70 per cent Himachal residents as per the rules of the Industries Department.

Lakhwinder Singh Rana, Nalagarh MLA, alleged that the rule of employing 70 per cent Himachal residents was being flouted. Ram Lal Thakur, Naina Devi MLA, said that many companies were not paying EPF to their employees. The minister urged the members to give precise information about the industries that were flouting the norm of employing 70 per cent Himachal residents and the Labour Department would take action against them.

To the question by Ashish Butail, MLA from Palampur, regarding the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, the government said that information on the issue was being collected. Butail alleged that the government has been evading information over the issue for the past two sessions. He alleged that the FRA Act was brought by the UPA government in 2006 but the state government was shirking from implementing it.

Responding to a query from Dalhousie MLA Asha Kumari, Mahender Thakur said that payments to the tune of Rs 197.98 crore to government contractors had been held up, as they had not submitted X forms for transporting mining material. The payments had been held on the orders of Himachal High Court, the minister said.

Asha Kumari said that most of the payments that have been held up are of works that have been completed. The contracts of these works were allotted before the High Court orders and the order did not apply to them, she said. The minister said that the matter was being put up before the court and payments could be released only after court orders, he said.

CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri said 90 tubewells had been installed in the Haroli Assembly constituency under his MLA priority scheme but he was not invited to inaugurate them though he is the local MLA.

Air connectivity vital for development: CM

• The Mandi airport project is vital for development, said the Chief Minister.
• The only drawback that Himachal has in terms of tourism development is the lack of connectivity.
• As developing road and railway connectivity requires a lot of time and resources, air connectivity is the only viable solution.
• Opposition leaders should not hinder the project.