Former HP CM urges Modi, Badal to repair Shanan Power House

Former Chief Minister and two-time Union Minister, Shanta Kumar has urged Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to take up massive repair and maintenance of Shanan Power House Jogindernagar, which had yielded income of crores of rupees to Punjab  since its commissioning in 1936.

He said media reports had disclosed shocking revelations that Punjab Government had made up its mind to transfer the carcasses of the project to the backward hilly State after 9 years.The PSEB was now deliberately rendering it to rack and ruin. He pleaded that instead of devastating this unique project, it would be better in the supreme national interest to hand over it to Himachal Pradesh nine years before the expiry of the lease deed so that the engineers of the HPSEB may give it a fresh lease of life.

He said that legally the project should have been handed over to Himachal Pradesh after Independence, but Punjab bullied the poor state and grave injustice was perpetrated to Himachal Pradesh. Shanta lamented that he was deeply peeved and pained to read the reports in a section of the media that the PSEB had allegedly discontinued its maintenance and repair with an alleged mala-fide intension to devastate it before handing it over to Himachal Pradesh in 2024 after the expiry of 99-year lease signed in 1925 between the British government and Raja of Mandi State in 1925.

He said Shanan Power House was crying for its survival  and the Central and Punjab Government should take immediate cognizance of it by salvaging it from the man-made crisis. Two more power houses utilizing the tail water of Shanan would also be endangered if the infrastructure of Shanan at Barot was further damaged and destroyed, warned the BJP leader.Meanwhile , Shanan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, has been constituted by Ram Swarup Sharma MP from Mandi Parliamentary constituency and Capt. Janak Singh Katoch, has been elected its president.

Ram Swarup Sharma told reporters here on Sunday that a delegation of all the MPs from Himachal Pradesh would meet the Prime Minister to express their concern about the dismal and deteriorating condition of Shanan due to its neglect by the PSEB.