LPAI to set separate stage for Modi

Dera Baba Nanak: The prestigious Kartarpur corridor project has suddenly acquired controversial contours with the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI), responsible for constructing the Rs 190-crore Integrated Check Post (ICP), setting itself on a collision course with the Punjab Government by deciding to set up a separate stage for Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the inaugural ceremony.

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Dera Baba Nanak, October 29

The prestigious Kartarpur corridor project has suddenly acquired controversial contours with the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI), responsible for constructing the Rs 190-crore Integrated Check Post (ICP), setting itself on a collision course with the Punjab Government by deciding to set up a separate stage for Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the inaugural ceremony.

The development came to light in a rather unexpected manner today when the LPAI started the work on the stage at the BSF’s post of Shikhaar Masiahan, nearly 10 km away from the corridor.

Heavy movement of trucks and other vehicles towards Shikhaar Masiahan, considered to be a sensitive area from the security point of view due to its proximity with the International Border (IB), were a tell-tale sign that something big was going on.

Sources confirmed that the LPAI was detaching itself from the festivities being organised by the state government “with the explicit permission of the BJP-led Central Government.”

The state government ‘pandal’ at the corridor site is almost 90 per cent complete and hence LPAI’s last- minute decision has come as a surprise to almost everybody.

A senior BSF officer confirmed the development.

LPAI chairman Govind Mohan was camping at the corridor site.

There are two versions floating around. One was that the Union government does not want to repeat the fracas that occurred during the November 26, 2018, function held at Dera Baba Nanak when Vice- President Venkaihah Naidu and Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh jointly laid the corridor’s foundation stone. At that time, Cabinet Minister and local MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had organised a function on behalf of the government while the NHAI had made arrangements to hold a separate event, barely 50 yards away from Randhawa’s function.

Later, better sense prevailed and the NHAI agreed to disband its stage and join the one set up by Randhawa.

Moreover, the proceedings had threatened to snowball into a major controversy when Randhawa lambasted Union Minister Harsimrat Badal publicly.

Both the LPAI and NHAI are controlled by the Union Ministry of Surface Transport. Secondly, a Cabinet minister disclosed that the BJP at the Centre was siding with its alliance partner SAD and hence the SGPC. It is a well-known fact that both the SGPC and the state government are at loggerheads over certain issues.