State and central governments politicising issue of establishing campus of Central University: Sudhir Sharma

Dharamsala: Former Urban Development Minister of Himachal and national secretary of Congress ,Sudhir Sharma has alleged that the state government of Himachal and the central government are doing politics on establishing the campus of Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP )in Dharamsala. “Actually the BJP governments of the state and Centre do not want to set up C U campus in Dharmashala at Jadarangal. Therefore, the state government has decided to provide less land for CU for campus of Dharamsala,” said Sudhir.

Senior Congress leader, Sudhir Sharma who was also the MLA of Dharamshala, said in the statement issued here on Monday, that during the Congress tenure, selecting the land for establish the campus of central university in Jadhangal (near Dharamshala) was taken up . Than Congress government had started the process for this , but due to power change the further work in this direction was stopped. In the meantime, the BJP government was established in the state and it did nothing after coming to power, and now it has started politics on this issue as Lok Sabha elections are approaching, as it has decided to give only 24 hectares of government land for CU, instead of 303 hectare reserved for it . He said , “ only by transferring a small amount of land , CU campus could not be established here . There is still a lot to be done for this and nothing can be done without many other necessary approvals.”

Sharma added that there is a lot to be done for this campus now, but BJP has no intention for this. He said that the BJP has been doing politics only for the last few years on this matter and it is still continuing its old game. He alleged that in view of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is in the hurry to do the shilanyas (Foundation stone laying ) of the Central University and it is just an eye wash of the public.

The Congress leader said that during the Congress tenure, the state government decided to give land to CU at Jadhangal , selected the place and started the entire process . He said that in Jadarangal, the former Congress government had selected 303 hectare land for this. The process of acquiring acceptance of forest land in this area was also started. But the matter was kept hanged up due to the power change.

He said , “BJP has started politics on the subject after assuming the power in the state and is trying to lay the foundation of central university in haste ,without any preparation in wake of the coming Lok Sabha elections. BJP has always politicised the matter and is trying to take away CU’s main Campus from Dharamsala of Kangra district and all the tactics are being adopted for it.” He said that he would not let this campus go to out of Dharamsala at any cost and he was ready to give every sacrifice for it.

Himachal Cabinet on Friday decided to transfer about 50 acre of land at Jadrangal in Dharamsala to Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP )in the name of the Union Ministry for HRD.

Though more than 300 hectare has been earmarked in Jadrangal for the campus, at present, the government is transferring just about 24 hector non-forest land. About 150 hactor of land at Dehra , (60 kms from here )have already been transferred in the name of the CUHP for another campus.

Kuldeep Agnihotri, Vice Chancellor of the CUHP, said “Now that the Cabinet has decided to transfer land in the name of the Union Ministry for HRD, we can lay the foundation stone for the university campus. The stone will be laid jointly at Dehra and Jadrangal in the first week of November.”

For the past 8 years or so, BJP and Congress leaders have been fighting over the location of the university .The previous BJP government decided that the CUHP would be located at two places in Dehra and Dharamshala whereas it was initially to work at Dharamshala only. A site was selected for the ,a campus at Dharamsala and another at Dehra by the side of Beas river.

The CUHP came into existence in 2010. Since then, it has been functioning from temporary campuses at Shahpur and Dharamsala. Due to non-availability of a permanent campus, the university was facing difficulty in retaining senior faculty.