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Himachal Pradesh CPI(M) state secretary Onkar Shad on Sunday lashed out at Professor Laxmidhar Behera, Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, for claiming that incidents of landslides and cloud bursts in the state are taking place due to "killing of animals" here.
Calling his views "unscientific' and "insensitive" and "drive to influence" students, Shad asked the professor to offer an immediate unconditional apology to the people of Himachal Pradesh. He also called for his resignation for forcing his personal views on students, 'not to eat meat'. "Resign from your office with immediate effect so that the institute can be saved fromfurther damages your unscientific leadership will cause," Shad said in a letter addressed to Professor Behera. "Your views and sermons on meat eating to students IIT, Mandi, are not only unscientific, contradictory to your professional values and ethics of leadership of an institute, but your conduct was unprofessional in forcing your personal views on students, not to eat meat? More so, you have created a special mess for students where only a special kind of food isserved. In the zeal to force your views on students you have acted against the Constitution of India which provides freedom to liberty". "People of Himachal Pradesh have been eating meat for ages. Why did not cloudbursts and landslides of the present magnitude happen for centuries, and why only now? You have wilfully skirted the issueof climate change, unimaginable rainfall, the fragile nature of the Himalayas, and anthropogenic causes behind this recent disaster. Do you not see blunders of reckless hill-cutting by NHAI for four-lanning of roads, adverse impact of hydroelectric dams ignoring ecological issues, and depleted carrying capacity of the hills due to undue expansion and unplanned growth of hill towns, including Shimla?", Shad said in a letter written to Professor Behera. "You warned that Himachal Pradesh will have a significant downfall if the butchering of innocent animals goes on. It is suggested that to prove your poor thesis you initiate a project to study per capita raising/culling of animals for meat, say since the last 50 years, at a gap of ten years to systematically study how many natural disasters happened over these years and how the meat-eating pattern changed since then? Or, you can expand the study period to a hundred years or reduce it to less than fifty years, whatsoever suits you". The CPI(M) leader also marked Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokhriyal and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. (ANI)
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