BLUNT BUTCHER / ANCHOR
In a classic case of changing colours like chameleon, the BJP has conveniently compromised with popular sentiments of its strong base hurting the Duggar pride. What was professed while being in the opposition, the BJP did reverse of that to remain in the government for sharing loaves of power.
Carrying forward Jammu leadership’s legacy of playing second fiddle to their Kashmir centric ‘masters’, the BJP has crossed all limits of the past in a crude manner. Asked just to bow, the BJP leadership has started crawling to appease the PDP for the sake of power.
Soon after former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had laid foundation stone of Jammu Cable Car Project in the august presence of his deputy Tara Chand, former cabinet ministers GA Mir, Raman Bhalla, Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo and then MP Madan Lal Sharma on February 24, 2014 hue and cry was raised by the opposition parties including BJP and local residents for playing with the sentiments of people of Jammu by trying to add name of Shahabad in the project document.
Jammu based residents had also alleged it was an attempt on the part of the State government to change the name of historical places of Jammu, including the historic Bahu Fort to “Shahabad”.
Cornered by the strong resistance, Director Tourism and the Managing Director J&K Cable Car Corporation on March 5, 2014 had issued a joint statement clarifying that the name of the cable car project is “Peer Kho to Bahu Fort”.
As per official handout issued by the then Director Tourism Jammu, Soujanya Sharma, the take off point was near Peer Kho Shrine and the landing point near Bahu Fort.
The statement further read, “The landing could not be made near Bahu Fort since as per the norms, no tower can be erected near the heritage site and since Bahu Fort is a heritage site, so tower has to be 500 meters away from the said monument. The last landing is in Bahu village. It is clarified that the name of the project is “Peer Kho to Bahu Fort”.
Now the question arises if the two senior most officers attached with the project had issued a clarification way back in 2014 how the name of the project was changed and at whose behest the alleged tinkering with the nomenclature was done.
Interestingly, the entire state BJP machinery despite joining the State Government is acting as mute spectator.
Even its own Minister of State occupying the ‘hot seat’ in the Tourism Ministry remained clueless how and when the nomenclature of the project was changed and while remaining in office she failed to prevent the same or assert her authority to avoid adverse reaction.
As per official records, even after the clarification was issued the Tourism Department while circulating a reply in the Legislative Council in March 2015 about tourism projects in Jammu and Kashmir had once again tabled a reply stating “Indigenous ropeway project from Mubarak Mandi to Shahbad is budgeted at Rs 4 crore for both the sanctions, which include the cost on the account of property land, forest land and realignment of utilities such as power and water lines”.
According to the proposed draft of the ropeway project, “the ropeway would consist of two sections. The Section-I with a length of 1,137 metres will be between Peerkho and Mahamaya and the Section-II with 453 metres length from Mahamaya Park to the Bahu Fort. The ropeway would comprise a mono-cable detachable Gandola system of six seats for transporting 600 persons per hour with imported grips, rope, cabins and other critical components.
