The initiative in highlighting the deplorable condition of the Shanan Power House, which was crying for survival, at Jogindernagar in Mandi district of Himacahal Pradesh has started yielding positive results.
The local people and the Shanan Bachao Samiti had alleged that the HPSEB and the Punjab Government were conspiring to render the globally know unique project into shambles before handing it over after 9 years from now to Himachal Pradesh in 1924 after the expiry of 99-year lease entered between the Raja of Mandi, Joginder Sen and the representative of the British Government in 1925 providing land for the project .
A team of The Pioneer inspected the entire project spreading over an area of about 30 sq km starting from the catchment area of Uhl, from where the water has been diverted through a 2-km long tunnel to Jogindernagar where the fall has been utilised for generation of hydel power.
Former PWD Minister and BJP leader Thakur Gulab Singh, now MlA, had met Union Minister of State with independent charge of coal and power, Piyush Goyal, at New Delhi earlier this month and had intimated him that the PSEB and the Punjab Government had virtually abandoned the project and all work of repairs and maintenance had been stoped with a mala-fide intention to render it non-functional by 1924 when it would be handed over to Himachal Pradesh.
Convinced by the plea of State BJP leader, Piyush Goyal, swung into action and a 4-member team of the Central Electricity Authority of India was rushed to inspect the 110-MW Shanan Project and submit a detailed factual report about alleged reduction of staff, the deteriorating condition of machinery, repair, non-maintenance and other lapses on the part of PSEB/Punjab Government, leading to its wreck and ruin.
Thakur Gulab Singh had also stressed the need of either handing over the project to the State Government for proper maintenance before further damage was cause to the project or to a central agency to ensure proper maintenance.
The central team has submitted its report holding the PSEB responsible for deliberately ruining the project. This followed the meeting of all the four MPs of Himachal Pradesh — former Union Minister, Shanta Kumar (Kangra) Anurag Thakur( Hamirpur) Ram Swarup Sharma (Mandi) and Virender Kashyap (Shimla) with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, before his departure to Soviet Union and stressed the stark urgency to transfer the globally known hydel-cum-tourism project to Himachal Pradesh to save it from further damage.
The delegation of lok Sabha members from Himachal Pradesh was assured by the Prime Minister to take appropriate steps to salvage the Shanan Project from getting it into wreck and ruin and find out why its repairs and maintenance had been abandoned for the last one decade. During the last lok Sabha elections all the four seats had been won by the BJP candidates. Even the Mandi Parliamentary seat from where Pratibha Singh, wife of Virbhadra Singh, had contested suffered a humiliating defeat.
After independence and reorganisation of States, the Shaman Project had been wrongly transferred to Punjab. Mandi State had also merged in India and a new state of Himachal Pradesh had come into being. locals say grave injustice had been done to the backward hilly state, which was a union territory ruled by lt Governor then.