Rohtang tunnel stone laid by Sonia Gandhi removed before opening by PM Modi: Cong

Shimla: The Himachal Congress on Monday alleged that the foundation stone laid by its national president Sonia

Gandhi for the Rohtang tunnel a decade ago was removed before its inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 3.

In a letter to Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, state Congress president Kuldeep Singh Thakur said Gandhi had laid the foundation stone on June 28, 2010 in the presence of the then CM Prem Kumar Dhumal and Union minister Virbhadra Singh.

Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, after whom the tunnel has been named, had announced the project during a public meeting at Lahaul-Spiti'sKeylong in June, 2000.

He had laid the foundation stone for an approach road to the tunnel in 2002.

The Congress leader said if not reinstalled within a fortnight, the party will launch a statewide agitation.

This is an undemocratic, unconventional and illegal step ever noticed in the history of Indian democracy that the legally laid foundation stone of any project approved by the then government is removed after its completion to fulfil political goals of a particular ideology, the Himachal Congress chief said in the two-page letter.

Meanwhile, Manali block Congress president Hari Chand Sharma submitted a complaint in this regard to the Kullu police.