Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has once again made a strong pitch for the compensation to J&K for the losses suffered by the state on account of Indus Water Treaty. Addressing the Power Ministers’ Conference in New Delhi, CM has rightly contended that the restrictions imposed by the treaty have barred the state from creating sufficient storage facility for the generation of electricity. CM has also made a strong case for the transfer of 390 MW Dulhasti hydro-electric project to J&K as recommended by Prime Minister’s Working Group on Economic Development for the state. Significantly, the sixth meeting of Task Force on Development of Hydro Projects which Omar also addressed accepted his demand to transfer 500 Dulhasti-II from NHPC to joint venture mode with state government as equal partner. This will be first such power project in the state which will be jointly constructed by NHPC and the state government. And for J&K which has been the victim of the exploitative power agreements with NHPC whereby the state receive a meagre 12 per cent share of the power produced, the new arrangement represents an enormous improvement. The Task Force has also agreed to put clearance of 1000 MW Pakaldul on fast track and speed up the work on Srinagar-Leh Transmission Line. However, both Dulhasti-II and the Pakaldul will take years to complete and this will hardly make any difference to the prevailing abysmal power situation in the state. And with winter approaching, Valley is already bracing for long hours of outages. What can make the difference is the transfer of the Dulhasti or the increase in the percentage of electricity shared with the state by NHPC from its existing projects. And on both counts, there are little signs that the state will get its due. At the same time the state government has also slept over its plans to buy back 690 MW Salal and 480 MW Uri-I power projects at depreciated cost of Rs 2566 crore from NHPC. This calls for the government to get its act together. Even though a long term strategy to improve the state’s power situation is welcome, the government also needs a pro-active short term plan to pull J&K out of its energy morass.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 09:06:24 +0000
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