DHARAMSHALA DECLARED SECOND CAPITAL OF HIMACHAL

DHARAMSHALA: With an eye on assembly elections slated to be held by yearend, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh on Thursday declared Dharamshala as the second capital of the hill state.

Camping at the picturesque hill town for his annual winter sojourn to the politically significant Kangra district, which has 15 assembly constituencies of the total 68 in Himachal, Virbhadra said: “Dharamshala is easily assessable to the people of lower areas of the state, including Kangra, Chamba, Hamirpur and Una districts, and people of these districts will benefit from this special status. Now, they don’t have to travel hundreds of kilometres to Shimla to get their works done.”

He said Dharamshala was already on the world tourism map and is home to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

The CM said a full-fledged winter session of the Himachal Vidhan Sabha was held for the first time outside Shimla in December 2005 and second assembly complex has also been built here.

Virbhadra said that it was he who introduced the practice of annual winter sojourn in 1994 to hear the people and see for himself the progress of development works being carried out in the area.

Meanwhile, local MLA and urban development minister Sudhir Sharma hailed the CM’s decision.