JK sleeps over water dispute with Punjab No work even after AG’s favourable opinion (Written by:Shafat Farooq Kashmir Monitor) =>While the state government continues to grapple against the power giant NHPC, another issue has hit it as the Public Health and Engineering (PHE) ministry has been caught napping over the river water dispute with Punjab, which has cost Jammu and Kashmir a whopping amount of Rs 9,000 crore over the years. According to highly placed sources, the state government had sought legal opinion of Attorney General of India over water dispute with the Punjab government and after the AGI stated that the demands made by the JK government were ‘genuine’, the PHE ministry, despite the passage of over six months has been caught in-between the administrative ‘inertia’. Sources said the PHE ministry has not initiated any further course of action over the issue. Minister for medical education, youth service and sports, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, who earlier held the PHE portfolio is said to have shot a letter to the chief minister Omar Abdullah, expressing shock over the slow pace on the execution of the project that could boost the economy of the state. In his letter Taj is believed to have urged the chief minister to ensure that necessary measures were taken for the immediate construction of Ravi canal right upto the inflow of reservoir of Ranjit Sagar Dam. The state cabinet in its decision No: 228/35/2012 and dated 17/12/2012 had called for the opinion of the Attorney General and in case the same was favourable for the state, administrative approval of the proposed construction would be accorded by the cabinet. However, even after the opinion of the Attorney General that had upheld the argument made by the state for the construction of extension of Ravi canal, no further step has been taken so far only because the PHE ministry has preferred to sleep over the issue. According to reports, it was in the year 1979 that an agreement was signed between JK government and Punjab government over the construction of Ranjit Sagar dam over River Ravi. The agreement was signed between Shiekh Mohammed Abdullah and Prakash Singh Badal on 20 January 1979. As per the agreement the JK government provided 1, 22, 000 Kanals of land to the Punjab government with the result over 22 villages got uprooted, official documents in possession of Kashmir Monitor say. Due to the agreement, the distance between Basholi and Kathua was increased by 40 Kms but neither the full compensation was paid by the Punjab government nor did it provide employment to people from JK as was envisaged in the agreement. “The Punjab government also did not provide 20% of the power generated by the Ranjit Sagar Dam. This comes to 120MW as the Hydel project generates 600MW of power,” the documents say. The PHE ministry had once clearly said that the Punjab government has cheated J&K as it has not lived upto the promises and the written words. “The losses suffered by J&K on account of Punjab’s failure to provide electricity to J&K from Ravi water are pegged at Rs 9,000 crore. Also the state suffered a huge loss because of the lesser agricultural yield,” the documents said. It was also mutually agreed that the J&K state shall contribute towards the cost of the aforesaid dam an amount equal to the difference in cost of taking off the Ravi canal from Shahpiur Kandi Dam and that from the downstream of Ranjit Sagar dam the mutually agreed estimates on the basis of price index of 1979-80 workout to the tune of Rs 14.98 crore and the same were vetted by the central water commission. The J&K govt has since approved the amount for payments vide govt order no PHE-318 of 1988 dated 9-4-1988. Consequently the J&K govt restricted the construction of the main Ravi canal upto Basantpur which is about 2.30kms downstream of the proposed Shahpur Kandi dam. The link of 2.30 kms of main Ravi canal with the Shahpur Kandi Dam was supposed to be constructed as soon as the work on Shahpur Kandi Dam was started and full share of water became available. As of now, an expenditure of Rs 134 crore has been incurred in raising the infrastructure of Ravi irrigation project by constructing 79.50kms of main Ravi canal with distribution network of 475Kms but infrastructures so built couldn’t be optimally utilized due to no availability of the agreed share of water from. The work on the proposed Shahpur Kandi Dam by Punjab government was expected by J&K government as 1981-82 as was supposed to be completed finally in about 10 years of time. This would have enabled J&K state to draw it share fully by 1991-92. But the Punjab government has not completed the construction till date causing heavy losses to the J&K government. “About 72,500 acres of cultivable area in J&K has been deprived of irrigation over the years by the Punjab government.” claims the document.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:25:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015