SHANTA TO LOBBY FOR IT PARK AT KANGRA

Dharamsala
The Tribune

Former Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha member Shanta Kumar would lobby for an IT and BPO park at Kangra. He said youth from the area were being hired by BPO companies coming up at Chandigarh and Delhi.

“If the state government brings up an IT and BPO park in Kangra district, it will help in mushrooming of pollution-free and labour-intensive industry. A large number of local youth can be provided employment in such industries. I will take up the matter with the state government,” he said.

He also expressed concern over the poor condition of roads in the Dharamsala area. “I have suggested to the government that concrete roads should be brought up in the Dharamsala region as bitumen roads are not viable in the region due to heavy rainfall. Concrete roads are most cost-effective, have a longer life span and no material has to be imported for constructing these, he added.

He also stressed on the need to make road contractors more accountable. On inflation, he said the prices of food items had gone up. This had hit the poor very hard. “Though the number of rich persons is increasing, the numbers of poor persons is increasing even faster. As per recent data, about 12 crore people in the country have income of just Rs 8 per day. Soaring inflation has hit this section the hardest,” he maintained.

He attributed the increase in prices of essential commodities to a decision of the UPA government to allow multinational companies to trade in food grains.

“When the NDA government left the office, the buffer stock of food grains was around 700 lakh tonne. However, now it has come down to just around 117 lakh tonne,” he said.

The pro-rich and anti-farmer policies of the present government were responsible for the rising prices of essential commodities, he said.

He said Himachal could become a tax-free state if its entire power potential of 21,000 MW was exploited. “At present, the state government is getting a royalty of Rs 1,464 crore from power projects. It can go up to Rs 6,000 crores if the entire hydropower potential is exploited,” he said.