Dharamsala Assembly complex to be used for first time in 2024 for 4-day winter session
The justification for having a Vidhan Sabha building in the Tapovan area of Dharamsala is once again being debated, as the government is scheduled to hold the winter session of the Assembly there from December 18 to 21.
Questions are being raised about the justification for having the Vidhan Sabha complex at Dharamsala as the huge building is being used for the first time in 2024 for four days for holding the winter session. It also raises questions over the maintenance of the building for the whole year at the cost of the public ex-chequer at a time when the state is facing a financial crisis.
Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania says that he is planning to use the Vidhan Sabha complex at Dharamsala for more days. In the near future, the building can be used for holding mock Assembly sessions for schoolchildren to make them aware about the procedures of the House.
The Central Government has recognised the Vidhan Sabha complex at Dharamsala as a centre for learning e-Vidhan proceedings or conducting online the Vidhan Sabha proceedings. “We may organise training for MLAs from other states in this Vidhan Sabha complex. Besides, the complex will be offered to various research agencies associated with the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry,” he adds.
This Assembly complex has been associated with the demand for the second capital status to Dharamsala in Kangra district. Kangra having 15 Assembly constituencies is the biggest and politically most significant district of the state.
The hilly areas of Punjab were merged in Himachal in 1966. The present districts of Kangra, Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti, Hamirpur, Una, Solan and some parts of present Shimla district were earlier in Punjab. In 1990, the BJP led by Shanta Kumar had accused the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of being biased against lower or merged areas of Himachal. The BJP benefited from this political rhetoric and won 46 of the 51 seats it had contested and Shanta Kumar became the Chief Minister of the state for the second time.
However, the BJP government lasted only for two and a half years, as the then Congress government at the Centre dismissed three BJP governments under Article 356 of the Constitution in the aftermath of the Babri mosque demolition.
There were mid-term elections and Virbhadra Singh once again came to power in the state in 1993. To counter the BJP’s narrative that he was biased against lower Himachal areas, Virbhadra had in 1993 took the initiative of organising the winter sojourn of the Chief Minister in Kangra and other districts of lower Himachal in December and January.
Virbhadra had also taken the decision to set up an Assembly complex at Dharamsala during his tenure as Chief Minister from 2003 to 2007. He had organised the first winter session of the Assembly at Dharamsala in the Prayas Bhawan in Dharamsala from December 26 to 29 in 2005.
Virbhadra had laid the foundation stone of the Assembly complex on February 14, 2006, and inaugurated it on December 26 the same year. Though Virbhadra had brought up the Vidhan Sabha complex at Dharamsala, he could not win more Assembly seats in Kangra district in the 2007 state elections. The BJP once again won 11 of the 15 Assembly segments in Kangra in 2007 and Prem Kumar Dhumal formed government winning 41 seats.
