Chandigarh April 24:
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today indicated that the country had not learnt lessons from the 1962 Chinese aggression and that the strategic importance of building a rail network in Himachal Pradesh was being continuously ignored.
Speaking on the sidelines of the national meet of the BJP Kisan Morcha here, the Himachal CM said while China had laid down an all-weather rail network, along with airstrips on its border with India, the country was continuing to dilly dally on the construction of a railway line to Leh.
Dhumal said he had taken up this issue with both the Prime Minister as well as the President, but it was ironical that the policy makers were looking at the issue as one of rate of return rather than its strategic importance. He said a rail network in Himachal would also save money for the country, as a huge amount of money was being spent to airlift supplies as well as men and machinery to Leh on a regular basis. He said Himachal had been able to get only 33 km of railway line since Independence and that only a part of it was electrified.
Meanwhile, in another development, Dhumal said the state had imported three anti-hail guns to protect its apple and other crops. He said the guns, which had been installed at Jubbal, Kotkhai and Rohru targeted cloud formations, which caused hailstorm. Each gun was capable of dispersing hail clouds over an area of around 3 km, he added. He said the project, which had been started on a pilot basis in Jubbal-Kotkhai belt which produced as much as 45 per cent of the state’s apple crop, would be replicated in the entire state depending upon its success.
Dhumal said other initiatives taken by his government to give an impetus to agriculture included an agreement with Japan under which the state had taken a Rs 321-crore loan for the diversification as well as introduction of organic farming. He said simultaneously facilities for horticultural producers were being upgraded continuously and now the government was in the process of creating an ultra-modern fruit marketing yard at Parala near Theog to provide marketing facilities to fruit and vegetable growers of the region. The yard would have facilities of cold storage, loading and unloading yards and auction sheds, he added.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today indicated that the country had not learnt lessons from the 1962 Chinese aggression and that the strategic importance of building a rail network in Himachal Pradesh was being continuously ignored.
Speaking on the sidelines of the national meet of the BJP Kisan Morcha here, the Himachal CM said while China had laid down an all-weather rail network, along with airstrips on its border with India, the country was continuing to dilly dally on the construction of a railway line to Leh.
Dhumal said he had taken up this issue with both the Prime Minister as well as the President, but it was ironical that the policy makers were looking at the issue as one of rate of return rather than its strategic importance. He said a rail network in Himachal would also save money for the country, as a huge amount of money was being spent to airlift supplies as well as men and machinery to Leh on a regular basis. He said Himachal had been able to get only 33 km of railway line since Independence and that only a part of it was electrified.
Meanwhile, in another development, Dhumal said the state had imported three anti-hail guns to protect its apple and other crops. He said the guns, which had been installed at Jubbal, Kotkhai and Rohru targeted cloud formations, which caused hailstorm. Each gun was capable of dispersing hail clouds over an area of around 3 km, he added. He said the project, which had been started on a pilot basis in Jubbal-Kotkhai belt which produced as much as 45 per cent of the state’s apple crop, would be replicated in the entire state depending upon its success.
Dhumal said other initiatives taken by his government to give an impetus to agriculture included an agreement with Japan under which the state had taken a Rs 321-crore loan for the diversification as well as introduction of organic farming. He said simultaneously facilities for horticultural producers were being upgraded continuously and now the government was in the process of creating an ultra-modern fruit marketing yard at Parala near Theog to provide marketing facilities to fruit and vegetable growers of the region. The yard would have facilities of cold storage, loading and unloading yards and auction sheds, he added.
