Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday condemned the actions and conduct of Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri and other Congress MLAs in the state assembly yesterday and said it was against the rich traditions and culture of the state.

After laying the foundation stone of Shiv Dham phase-I at Mandi to be developed at Kangnidhar, he said this shows that the Congress today was a leaderless, directionless and issueless party.

“There is a competition between the leaders of Congress to exhibit their supremacy to catch the attention of their central leadership,” he added.

Thakur further stated that Shiv Dham at Mandi will be constructed at a cost of around Rs 150 crore and the first phase of the project will be completed at a cost of Rs 40 crore.

“The Shiv Dham will be developed in an area of 9.5 hectare at Kangnidhar and would be a major attraction for the tourists visiting Chhoti Kashi Mandi.

The Shiv Dham would have replicas of twelve Jyotirlingam, statues of Lord Shiva and Ganesh, Museum, Food Cour t, Herbal Garden, Nakshatra Vatika, Amphitheatre, Orientation Centre, Car Parking etc.

The credit of the project goes to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who helped the state in getting clearance for Shiv Dham project and 604 other projects hanging in fire for want of forest clearances,” he added.

He said that Rs 27 crore Anaj Mandi (Grain Market) would be constructed in Mandi town as soon as the state gets forest clearances. The Finance Commission had also recommended Rs 1000 crore for Greenfield Airport in Mandi and Rs 400 crore for expansion of Kangra Airport.

He further stated that developmental projects worth Rs 300 crore were being executed during the last three years in Mandi town and Rs 82.18 crore water augmentation scheme for Mandi town would provide better water supply to over 50,000 people of the town.

He said that Rs 21 crore bridge had been dedicated to the people of the town near Victoria bridge and Rs 40 crore has been spent on beautification of Mandi town with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB).

“Under ADB project, work has been carried out for beautification of Tarna Temple, development of Aarti Ghats on Beas river, beautification of Indira market etc.

A Tourist Culture Centre is nearing completion with an outlay of Rs 7.50 crore and work on Rs 68.57 crore sewerage scheme was also underway to facilitate the people of suburbs of Mandi town.

Besides, Rs 30 crore Sanskriti Sadan was also coming up at Kangni and all these projects were bound to make Mandi town a major tourist destination of the state,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that the present state government had completed three years in office and this was possible due to the active support and cooperation of the people of the state.

The new responsibility also brought in new challenges but with peoples’ cooperation every challenge was converted into opportunity, he added.

HP In-charge BJP Avinash Rai Khanna, Jal Shakti Minister Mahender Singh, MP Ram Swaroop Sharma MLAs Rakesh Jamwal, Col Inder Singh, Vinod Kumar, Hira Lal, Inder Singh Gandhi, Jawahar Thakur and Prakash Rana were also present on the occasion among others.