Question hour: Land acquisition for Pathankot-Mandi four lane initiated, says Jai Ram

The land acquisition process for the construction of the Pathankot-Mandi four lane has been initiated and compensation will be decided soon, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Monday.

He was replying to a question jointly raised by MLAs Pawan Kajal and Arun Kumar. The CM said the width of the road will be 30 to 40 metres and a revised detailed project report (DPR) is being prepared. He said the date and cost of construction will be announced after the DPR is approved.

“For repairing roads, NHAI regional officers of have been granted permission to spend up to ₹10 crore and ₹14.93 crore had already been spent since 2019.

Responding to Bharmour legislator Jiya Lal, agriculture minister Virendra Kanwar said farmers can take loans up to ₹7.50 lakh for agricultural fund. “The government will give a subsidy of 5% on the interest for three years and a 3% subsidy for two years”.

“The Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme is in force since in 2016. As per the scheme, 2% premium is charged on Kharif crop and 1.5% premium is charged on Rabi crops,” Kanwar said, adding that crops like peas, cabbage, capsicum that are damaged due to bad weather are also covered under the insurance scheme and farmers only have to pay 5% premium for it.

Responding to a question asked by BJP MLA Vishal Nehria, the CM said the matter of problems being faced by residents of Yol Cantonment area in Kangra had been raised with the ministry of defence.

Education minister Govind Thakur, in response to Vinod Kumar, said that state government will start an Atal Adarsh Vidyalaya in every Vidhan Sabha Constituency and ₹15 crore will be spent on it. The amount will be sanctioned by Central government and this matter has been raised in the ministry of finance.