BJP pursuing regional politics: Cong

Rallying behind Himachal Pradesh government over the smart city mission, Kangra Congress leaders today accused the BJP of pursuing regional politics in the state, days after High Court quashed Centre's notification including Dharamsala in the project.
In a joint statement issued here today, chief parliamentary secretaries of Congress, Jagjeevan Pal and Neeraj Bharti, independent MLAs and other prominent leaders alleged that the BJP was pursuing regional politics on the issue of smart city and playing with the sentiments of people of Kangra.
They, however said, the irresponsible statements issued by BJP leaders would fail to mislead the people.
"Kangra district was making rapid progress and heading towards fast development under the present Congress government but the BJP, which always tried to harm the interests of Kangra and also made abortive bids to divide the district into four districts," they said, adding that the BJP also paid a price for this in the Assembly polls.

The Congress leaders said the people of Kangra were wise enough to see through the designs of the BJP and had seen the development that took place during the Congress regime.
"The people of Kangra are stunned over the decision of High Court on Smart City andwedon't want to comment on Court judgement but some opposition parties were trying to ignite regional politics under the garb of the judgement to derive political mileage which is deplorable," they said.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court had on Thursday quashed the notification issued by the central government regarding inclusion of Dharamsala in Smart City mission.

Dharamsala constituency is represented by Sudhir Sharma, who is also Urban Development Minister in the state cabinet, and inclusion of Dharamsala in smart city mission had evoked strong protests from BJP and CPI(M) leaders in Shimla which was vying for smart city status.
The Congress leaders further said that thepresent government was committed to make every village and town a smart city and wanted cities like Shimla, Mandi, Solan, Sundernagar, Manali and Kullu to developed on the pattern of smart city in a phased manner.