Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday met Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar and sought special powers for the State to allow diversion of forest land up to five hectares for development projects.
During his Delhi visit, the Chief Minister also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj and Agriculture, Narendra Singh Tomar to discuss issues related to the State.
He urged Prakash Javadekar to provide the power of diversion of forest land up to five hectares to State Government to speed up development activities.
The Chief Minister said that being a hill state, most of the land comes under forest and delay in clearances act as hindrance in the pace of completion of projects. If this power is granted to state, it will help in executing developmental projects speedily, he said.
Thakur also apprised the Union Minister that Himachal Pradesh comes under the jurisdiction of regional office at Dehradun which creates delay and
requested to change the jurisdiction to Chandigarh office which is
comparatively nearer and easy to approach. The Union Minister assured to look into the matter. In his meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the Chief Minister requested to grant one Himalayan Regiment in the army for the state.
He also requested the Union Minister for construction of proposed airport in Mandi district. Keeping in view of its strategic location, the airport can prove very helpful for defence purpose. The survey work has been done for the airport and requested for speedy completion of rest of the formalities, Thakur said. During his meeting with Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, the Chief Minister requested him for making provision of funds for maintenance of roads connecting hamlets and internal connectivity within the villages.
He said that being a hilly state, roads are the lifeline and primary mode of connectivity in Himachal. The internal connectivity within villages is also very important for transportation of agriculture produce and the Central Government should provide funds for their maintenance as well, the Chief Minister said.
He added that funds being provided for maintenance of roads constructed under PMGSY are meagre and should be increased to ensure better maintenance of these roads.