Hand over Shanan powerhouse to state: MLA
Our Correspondent
Palampur, July 26
MLA Thakur Gulab Singh, former minister and senior BJP leader, today urged the Union Energy Minister Piyush Goyal to ask the Punjab Government to hand over the Shanan power house at Jogindernagar to the state government with immediate effect.
The condition of this power project has moved from bad to worse in the past five years since the Punjab Government discontinued its repair and maintenance work.
Addressing mediapersons here yesterday, Thakur Gulab Singh said he had written a letter to the Union Power Minister highlighting the facts pertaining to legal claim of the state government on the Shanan power house which was situated in the territory of Himachal. He also released a copy of his letter to the media here today.
The MLA said he had apprised the Union Energy Minister that during the British regime the Shanan hydroelectric power house was constructed on a 99-year lease executed between Joginder Sen, king of Mandi State and Col BC Batty, a British representative, in 1925. The lease will come to an end in 2024 when Himachal will become the owner of the project. He said he had told the minister that the condition of the project and material had gone from bad to worse. Most of the buildings are in a shambles. Even the Punjab Government had suspended major repairs of turbines and other equipment of the power house.
He said earlier there was a staff strength of 350 which had been reduced to 150 by the Punjab Government as the power house would no longer be property of the Punjab Government after 2024.
Thakur said he had told the Union Energy Minister that the Punjab Government and the PSEB deliberately wanted to finish the beautiful Shanan complex having rail lines and haulage trucks and trolleys.
“The trolley service has also been suspended. The ropes and pulleys of haulage have been rusted and decayed for want of maintenance. Rather these should have been preserved and protected for future generations,” he said. The Shanan power house used to feed the entire undivided Punjab, Lahore and Delhi before Independence.
