Palampur: NGOs flay Himachal Govt for taking over 112 hectares of university land

Six local NGOs today criticised local MLA Ashish Butail for supporting the state government’s decision for taking over 112 hectares of agriculture university land for setting up a tourism village.

Palampur MLA had stated in the Assembly on Friday that he favoured the government’s decision in this regard as it was in public interest.

Talking to reporters here today, Parveen Sharma, head, INSAF, an NGO, said acting vice chancellor of the university should not have given NOC to the state government for the transfer of land to the Tourism Department for setting up a tourism village.

He said this decision would hamper research, education and teaching activities of the university. He said while transferring the land, the university board of management, the highest decision making body, was also not taken into confidence. He said the MLA was elected by the people for providing better facilities to them and not for giving valuable government land to private hoteliers.

“As 112 hectares of the university has been transferred to the Tourism Department, the institution would be left with only 198 hectares of agricultural land. The university will not be able to continue with research and training programmes with limited land. Besides, the university has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to set up a seed production unit. The university has allocated 75 hectares for the project. Under such circumstances, the state government should not have acquired 112 hectares for the Tourism Department,” he said.

The representative of NGOs — People’s Voice, INSAF, Om Manglam, Geeta Peeth and the Bharatiya Jan Seva Sanstha — said people of Palampur would never forgive MLA Ashish Butail for depriving an education institution of its valuable land which was earmarked only for education purposes.