BJP walkout from HP Assembly on ski village project

Shimla, Mar 2 (UNI) The opposition BJP today staged a walk-out from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly after Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's reply on the motion of thanks on the Governor's address in the House, alleging that he had not addressed the opposition's concerns on price rise and drought.

Immediately after the Chief Minister concluded his reply, the former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the state government had not addressed their concerns over the Rs 3,500 crore ski village project being set up in Kullu district of the state.

Mr Singh, however, termed the BJP walk out a ''drama'', saying that the BJP has resorted to an act like this to attract media attention.

Earlier in his reply, the chief minister accused the opposition of favouring the Jai Prakash industries for the setting up of Baspa II and Karcham Wangtoo hydel projects.

The previous government had signed the Power Purchase Agreement for Baspa stage-II for a revised project cost of Rs 1,550 crore from the initially revised (previously by the then Congress government) project cost of 949.32 crore, he said.

This was done despite no physical loss to the company and there was only a delay of two-three years in its commissioning, he said.

The chief minister said the MoU on the Karcham Wangtoo project was signed during the Governor's rule in August 1993.

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