Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 21: Protests rocked the Legislative Assembly over inordinate delay in the start of work on the cable car project of Jammu and pathetic condition of Samba-Mansar road with Opposition MLAs accusing the Government of being biased towards all those projects which have the potential to ensure tourism promotion in Jammu region. After creating pandemonium on these issues for some time, the members of BJP, NPP and JSM staged walk-out.
The protests from Jammu-based Opposition MLAs started as soon as Minister for Urban Development, Nawang Rigjin Jora, on behalf of Minister for Tourism, informed the Lower House that there was no proposal for changing alignment of the Jammu’s ropeway in order to make historic Mubarak Mandi complex as one of its base station.
“For years together we were told that Mubarak Mandi will be one of the base stations of the cable car project but now we are informed that ropeway would be from Peerkoh to Mahamaya to Shahabad”, BJP MLA from Jammu East, Ashok Khajuria said and sought to know as to why Mubarak Mandi was excluded from the ropeway project.
On this, Mr Jora said, “changing alignment of the project is not feasible at present juncture as obtaining permissions from different agencies including Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court is a lengthy process and already the project has suffered delay of several years”, adding “within two-three days the foundation stone of the project is being laid by the Chief Minister’.
Infuriated over the reply of the Minister, Mr Khajuria remarked, “such excuses come in the way of construction of projects for tourism promotion in Jammu region only”. He said, “why there was scant regard to the Supreme Court guidelines/directions when Mahamaya forest area was being encroached upon”.
As there was no response from the Government, all the BJP MLAs left their seats in protest and then staged walk-out while raising “Jammu Virodhi Sarkar Hai Hai” slogans.
Joining the issue, NPP MLA, Harshdev Singh said, “despite repeated assurance from the Government during the past several years the work on the ambitious project has not been started till date and this puts a question mark on the seriousness of the Government to take up the project”, adding “this can be gauged from the fact that no specific grant has been earmarked for this project in the Budget for the next financial year”.
“Merely keeping amount for private land acquisition and shifting of utilities is not going to make any difference as the fact is that during the past so many years Government has only given assurances on the start of work on the project”, NPP leader further said.
Congress MLA from Chenani, Krishan Chander Bhagat raised the issue of ropeway project for Patnitop and wanted to know the present status of clearance to the project.
The Minister for Urban Development, Nawang Rigjin Jora, who was replying to the queries on behalf of the Tourism Minister, tried to convince the Opposition MLAs by explaining the reasons behind the delay in start of work but the protest from NPP and lone JSM MLA, Ashwani Sharma continued and later they staged walk-out by accusing Government of being insensitive towards the projects of much importance for Jammu region.
Later, while replying to the queries of CPM’s Mohd Yousaf Tarigami and PDP’s Rafi Ahmed Mir, Tourism Minister, G A Mir said that all the Tourism Development Authorities have been directed to conduct feasibility surveys for the cable car projects demanded during the meeting of such authorities. “The decision on construction of such projects would be taken only on the receipt of survey reports”, he added.
Uproarious scenes were again witnessed in the House when Minister of State for R&B, Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo, in reply to a question of NC MLA, Bimla Luthra, informed the House that an amount of Rs 3.41 crore has been expended on Samba-Mansar road up to March 2013.
Contesting the reply of the Minister, NPP MLA Harshdev Singh demanded that an inquiry should be conducted to ascertain actual expenditure on the road, adding “the pathetic condition of road leading to important tourist spot of Jammu doesn’t indicate that such a huge amount has been spent”.
The NPP MLA was joined by the BJP and JSM members, who too expressed serious concern over the poor condition of Samba-Mansar road and demanded inquiry into expenditure of Rs 3.41 crore. However, they were countered by MLA Vijaypur, Surjit Singh Slathia, who said that some amount was spent on improvement of Samba-Mansar road condition.
As protests from Jammu-based Opposition continued, Speaker Mubarak Gul directed the MoS R&B to personally visit the road to ascertain actual expenditure on the ground and take action against the officers, who allegedly tried to mislead the House. Though R&B Minister assured to visit the road during the current session itself and give feed back to the House yet the Jammu-based Opposition MLAs were not ready to relent and after protesting over the issue for some time they staged walk-out.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel