Chenani tunnel will always remind of injustice done to Mookerjee: Dr Jitendra

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh addressing the gathering after formal naming of the Chenani-Nashri Tunnel as
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh addressing the gathering after formal naming of the Chenani-Nashri Tunnel as "Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel" in a ceremony led by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, through video conference, at New Delhi on Thursday.

Gadkari hails it as tribute to crusader for Kashmir’s integration

Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Oct 24 : Striking an emotional note, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that the newly named “Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel” will always remind of the injustice done to Mookerjee and, is a very small and humble atonement of that.
It was along this road, through Chenani and Nashri, on May 11, 1953, he recalled, that Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, after being illegally arrested by the Sheikh Abdullah Goverment earlier in the day at Lakhanpur, was driven late evening to be taken to Srinagar where he died under mysterious circumstances, after 44 days of inhuman detention without a warrant or a charge-sheet.
Dr Jitendra Singh was speaking after the formal naming of the Chenani Nashri Tunnel as “Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee” in a ceremony led by Union Road Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, who hailed the first-ever project to be named after Mookerjee as a tribute to the great crusader for Kashmir’s total integration with India.
Gadkari described newly named “Dr Shyama Prasad Tunnel” as Asia’s longest and a state-of-the-art tunnel. He also gave credit to Dr Jitendra Singh for his continuous persuasion to name the tunnel after Mookerjee.
Dedicating the tunnel to three generations of Karyakartas who had struggled all their lives to realise Mookerjee’s dream, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it is because of them that our generation of Karyakartas have been blessed to see the day when we can celebrate the realization of Mookerjee’s dream of “Ek Nishan, Ek Vidhan, Ek Pradhan”.
However, he said, the “Nishan” or the tricolour that Mookerjee had handed over to us to unfurl in Jammu & Kashmir will rise to its full glory, only when it is unfurled in the Pak occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) as well. The way the caravan of Modi’s new India is moving ahead undeterred, he said, the day is not far when the tri-colour will unfurl in PoJK also.
Gadkari said that, as a norm, the present Government has discontinued the practice of naming tunnels or bridges after individuals but this tunnel is being named after Shyama Prasad Mookerjee as a mark of respect and his commitment to nationalism, with which we have grown up saying “Jahan Hue Balidan Mookerjee, Woh Kashmir Humara Hai”. The other landmark named after an individual by this Govt, he said, was the “Bhupen Hazarika Bridge” in Assam which also happens to be associated with the Ministry of North East in the charge of Dr Jitendra Singh.
Gadkari also spelt out various new projects for Jammu & Kashmir, the most important of which is the “Express road Corridor” from Delhi to Katra which will reduce the road travel time to merely six hours.
The proposal to name the tunnel after Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was first made by Dr Jitendra Singh in 2017 at the time of its inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but somehow it could not be carried forward and now after the historic turn of events on the 5th and 6th of August this year, he revived this proposal again and it was instantly approved by Nitin Gadkari.

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