‘Attack on Farooq is security lapse, needs thorough probe’
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Mar 13: Former Sadar-e-Riyast Dr Karan Singh has alleged that work on widening and four-laning of roads in Jammu Kashmir was destroying Himalayas bringing disasters to the region.
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Talking to media persons on the sidelines of Jammu Tawi Festival, here today, Dr Karan Singh said that he had written a letter to Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport to spare Himalayas from his ambitious road widening projects.
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“I have written letter to Nitin Gadkari appreciating his work on constructing roads in plain areas and that is marvellous, but hills should be spared as the parameters for plains are not applicable to hills,” he said.
Drawing attention towards the recent floods, landslides and natural disasters in Jammu and adjoining Himachal Pradesh, Dr Karan Singh that people have been paying heavily for the so called development and they will continue to suffer until the Government takes a decision making it clear that roads in hilly areas should not be further widened.
“There is no need of four-laning here. Tourists can travel well on two lane roads. I have toured the entire world and six-laning is not everywhere. We should not destroy our natural hills for the tourists who are important, but not at the cost of Himalayas,” said, Dr Karan Singh, who is a former Union Minister for Tourism.
The nonagenarian scion of the erstwhile Royal Dogra family also expressed his deep annoyance over establishing of hotels in forest areas and serving liquor in religious places.
“The consequences of such misdeeds are obvious as we saw in Kedarnath where thousands of people perished in a moment,” he said and passionately appealed people of each belief to save the culture of Himalayas and avoid destroying it.
Expressing serious concern over ongoing conflict in West Asia, Dr Karan Singh described the situation there as disastrous and stressed for dialogue to end the crisis.
“Is is absolutely disastrous. Iran is a great civilization and we have relations with them since thousands of years. The way Iran is being destroyed because of Isreal, it is very unfortunate,” he said.
In response to a query on Rahul Gandhi purportedly blaming Government of India for compromising security of the country, Dr Karan Singh said he was not aware of such views and he did not want to comment too much about politics.
“But, the Iran situation was I think is what was avoidable. There were negotiations. There were two days left for the negotiations, but Isreal attacked in one day to prevent any sort of agreement between America and Iran,” he said and reiterated that both the countries should come in agreement.
Condemning assassination attempt on National Conference president, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Karan Singh described it as a security lapse and stressed for a thorough probe to ascertain why it happened and what its background was.
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