Shimla, April 21— Himachal Pradesh Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan and Technical Education Minister Rajesh Dharmani on Tuesday countered Union Health Minister JP Nadda’s allegation that the state had returned Rs 25 crore in central assistance for the Medical Devices Park, calling his remarks misleading and factually incorrect.
Refuting Nadda’s claim that the Congress-led government scrapped the Rs 350 crore park project, the ministers said the state has instead opted to execute the project independently.
They said the union government’s Rs 100 crore grant came with “several conditions that would have harmed the state’s long-term interests.”
“It is in view of these conditions that Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu decided to return the Rs 25 crore central assistance,” the ministers said in a joint statement.
One of the key conditions, they explained, would have required the state to provide 300 acres of prime land to industrialists at a token rate of Re 1 per square metre. “That land is worth nearly Rs 500 crore. Under this deal, it would have been handed over for just Rs 12 lakh. This was not acceptable,” they stated.
Other terms included supplying power to investors at Rs 3 per unit—less than half the market rate of Rs 7—and providing free water, maintenance, and warehousing facilities for 10 years.
“All of this would have placed a heavy financial burden on the state, running into crores of rupees,” they said, adding that the arrangement offered no significant returns, as the state would not have earned GST revenue from the park either.
Chauhan and Dharmani said the government remains committed to the project and would proceed with its development without compromising the state’s fiscal and land interests.
Read more: NADDA ACCUSES SUKHU GOVT OF RETURNING CENTRAL FUNDS
