Former Chief Minister and two-time Union Minister, Shanta Kumar, has urged Prime Minister, Narinder Modi and Punjab Chief Minister, Prakash Singh Badal , to take up massive repair and maintenance of Shanan Power House Jogindernagar, which has yielded income in 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 it over 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 also said legally the project shoals have been handed over to Himachal Pradesh after independence, but Punjab bullied the poor state and grave injustice was perpetrated to the state.
Shanta lamented that he was deeply peeved and pained to read press reports in a section of the Press 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 has been 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 were further damaged and destroyed, warned the BJP leader.
Meanwhile, Ram Swarup Sharma MP has constituted Shanan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, from Mandi Parliamentary constituency and Cap. Janak Singh Katoch, has been elected its president.
Ram Swarup Sharma told reporters here today 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.