Row over Central varsity site deepens

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, December 24

Former minister and BJP MLA from Dehra Ravinder Ravi has fuelled the ongoing controversy regarding the location of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP).

Talking to reporters at Dehra today, Ravi claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi might lay the foundation stone of the CUHP at Dehra in March 2015.

He said former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal met the PM on Monday and both the leaders discussed issues pertaining to the state, Ravi said.

Ravi said the PM would lay the foundation stone of two projects, including a power project in Rampur and the CUHP at Dehra.

He claimed the papers regarding the 900 kanal land transferred in the name of the CUHP in Dehra were provided to Union HRD Minister Samriti Irani and she had asked officials to follow up the case.

BJP MP from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur and three BJP MLAs, including Ravinder Ravi, Bikram Thakur and Varinder Kanwar, met Samriti Irani on Monday and requested her to lay the foundation stone of the CUHP at Dehra.

The BJP and the Congress are likely to come at loggerheads over the issue once again after Ravi’s statement.

While the BJP wants the CUHP campus at Dehra, the Congress government in the state has not shown any inclination for it. Congress MLA from Dharamsala and the Town and Country Planning Minister Sudhir Sharma has been lobbying for the CUHP campus at Dharamsala.

It was at his initiative that the government offered 400 acres for the CUHP at Dharamsala near Indrunag Temple. However, the offer was rejected by the HRD Ministry on a plea that the land fell in the active sliding zone. The government is yet to be suggested any alternative land for the CUHP campus.

CM Virbhadra Singh, during the recently concluded winter session of the Assembly, flayed the Opposition for playing politics over the location of the CUHP campus. He said the government was in favour of a single CUHP campus anywhere in Kangra district. He suggested that the state government would suggest a suitable land for the university soon.