In reply to the question of Prem Singh he said Himachal government would get 40 mw power to be generated from this project.

Replying to the supplementaries the Chief Minister said that while the Delhi Administration would invest a major chunk, the Himachal Pradesh Government would invest Rs 87.30 crore in the project.

Dhumal said the state government had already written to the Delhi Administration to get the clearance of the project expedited as the national capital would also meet its water requirement. He said the state government had already submitted a project report for technical and economic approval to the CEA and was making all effort to get an early clearance.

The Chief Minister in a written reply to the question of Harsh Mahajan informed the House that the state government had not taken any decision on raising the retirement age of its employees from 58 to 60 years.

In another written reply he said the state government had received complaints under its reward scheme on some corruption cases which were being examined. In view of certain inherent anomalies in the scheme, the government was re-examining it after which necessary action would be taken, he added.

The Chief Minister replied in the affirmative to a question of Parveen Sharma and Hari Narayan that it was in the knowledge of the Vigilance Department that father of former managing director of HIMFED had done business of procurement of maize in HIMFED when the officer was himself posted as the managing Director. The Chief Minister said that the matter was under consideration of the government.

In reply to a question of Tek Chand the Chief Minister said there was no proposal to shift the state capital from Shimla to Sundernagar.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal told Asha Kumari that the Tenth Finance Commission had given Rs 15 crore for construction of airport at Banikhet. When former chief minister Virbhadra Singh questioned him he admitted that the Finance Commission had given Rs 30 crore for two airports at Rangrik and Banikhet.

The Chief Minister said construction work would begin as and when all the formalities were completed.

The Chief Minister said that there were some technical hurdles for the construction of Rangrik airport in Lahaul-Spiti but the state government would make efforts to complete the airport at Banikhet.