JAMMU: Enraged over the profane mis-adventures of the State Government to change the name of Jammu’s Cable Car Project besides Hindu shrines and Dogra historical sites in the State, a strong contingent of Panther activists spearheaded by Harsh Dev Singh, Chairman JKNPP and Yash Paul Kundal State President Young Panthers staged a vociferous protest at Exhibition Ground Jammu.
The agitated protestors accused the BJP in particular being hand in glove with its ally for converting J and K to an Islamic State. While addressing the media, Harsh said the MoS Tourism had made a verbal statement that the name of Bahu-Fort Cable Car project would not be changed without issuing any official order or the modified version of the fresh tender notice. Expressing apprehensions over the veracity of the statement of MoS Tourism, Singh said that earlier also the BJP ministers had cheated the people of Jammu region over the issue of withdrawal of service tax on chopper services to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.
He further accused the MoS Tourism of attempting to mislead the gullible people of Jammu by saying that Shahbad name had been given to the cable car project by erstwhile Cong-NC Government.
He divulged that on 5th March in 2014 during erstwhile Congress-NC rule, the Director J and K Tourism Department and the Managing Director of J and K Cable Car Corporation had jointly clarified that the name of the cable car project was “Peer Kho to Bahu Fort” by issuing an official handout.
“They had clearly said that the take-off point would be near Peer Kho Shrine and the landing point would be near the Bahu Fort. The ropeway consisted of two sections. The Section-I with a length of 1,137 metre would be between Peer Kho and Mahamaya and the Section-II with 453 meter length from Mahamaya Park to the Bahu Fort. The project enhancing tourism potential of Jammu would comprise of a mono-cable detachable Gandola system of six seats for transporting 600 persons per hour with imported grips, rope, cabins and other critical components. The clandestine change of the nomenclature of Jammu’s revered Cable Car Project had exposed the dirty intentions of the government to establish sectarian homogeneity in Jammu region under the pretext of converting J and K to Islamic State. This communal and fascist ideology had also hurt the sanctity of the holy shrines of Lord Shiva and Goddess Mahakali after whom the ropeway had been named”, infuriated Harsh said.
Among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Gagan Partap, Parshotam Parihar, Raj Kumar, Nirmal Kishore, Partap Singh, Khajoor Singh, Parduman Singh, Udhayveer, Narinder Sharma, Shankaar Singh Sanju, Rajesh Gondhi and Soni Sambyal.