State, Centre playing politics over CUHP campus at Dharamshala: Sudhir Sharma

Former state minister and Congress national secretary Sudhir Sharma alleged Monday that the state government and the Centre are playing politics over setting up a campus of the Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP )in Dharamsala.

Sharma, the former state Urban Development minister who was also the MLA from Dharamsala, said the Congress wanted to establish the varsity campus here during its tenure but the present central government led by the BJP did "nothing" in this regard.

"The BJP governments in the state and at the Centre do not want to set up the C U campus at Jadarangal in Dharmashala. Therefore, the state government has decided to provideless land for CU for campus of Dharamsala," he said.

Selection of land for establishment of the university campus in nearby Jadrangal was taken up when the Congress was in power in the state, the former minister said.

"The BJP did nothing in this regard after coming to power government in the state was formed in the state and it did nothing after coming to power.

"It has now started politics on this issue as the Lok Sabha elections are approaching. The BJP government has decided to allot only 24 hectare of government land for the CU, instead of 303 hectare reserved for it," Sharma said.

He alleged that in view of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is in the "hurry to lay the foundation stone of the Central University campus and it is "just an eyewash".

The Himachal Pradesh cabinet on Friday decided to transfer about 50 acre of land at Jadrangal to Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP ) on the name of the Union HRD ministry.

Though more than 300 hectare has been earmarked in Jadrangal for the campus, at present, the government is transferring just about 24 hectare non-forest land.

About 150 hactareof land at Dehra (60 kms from here ) has already been transferred in the name of the CUHP for another campus.

Kuldeep Agnihotri, the CUHP vice chancellor, said "Now that the cabinet has decided to transfer land in the name of the Union HRD ministry, we can lay the foundation stone for the university campus. The foundation stone will be laid jointly at Dehra and Jadrangal in the first week of November.

For the past 8 years or so, BJP and Congress leaders have been at loggerheads over the location of the university.

The previous BJP government decided that the CUHP campus would be located at two places in Dehra and Dharamshala whereas it was initially to work at Dharamshala only.

The CUHP came into existence in 2010. Since then, it has been functioning from temporary campuses at Shahpur and Dharamsala. Due to non-availability of a permanent campus, the university was facing difficulty in retaining senior faculty.