Indus Water Treaty (IWT), which was signed in Karachi on September 19, 1960 by the then Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and the then President of Pakistan, Mohammad Ayub Khan, is detrimental to the Jammu and Kashmir’s interests in many ways. The Treaty restricts us from sufficient storage of the water for generation of hydroelectric energy and for agricultural use thereby impeding the State’s growth and development. Despite having huge potential for ensuring a turn-around in economy, the State could not fully exploit the water resources mainly because of the provisions in the IWT, which make it obligatory on the part of India to supply information of its storage and hydroelectric projects to Pakistan. Since our neighbor tried to create hurdles whenever we planned any power project in the State till date, no positive response from Pakistan can be expected even in future. In nutshell, the discriminatory Indus Water Treaty provisions have become a tool in the hands of Pakistan to restrict us from making optimum use of our water resources.
It is in this background that Chief Minister has been pleading, during the past several years, for adequate compensation to J&K for the restrictions imposed by IWT on creating water storage facilities and power generation. He reiterated this demand during the recent Power Ministers’ Conference and meeting of Task Force on Development of Hydro Projects. The demand has already been endorsed by State Finance Commission, which has stated that Jammu and Kashmir should seek compensation for the losses incurred by it on account of IWT from not only India but Pakistan as well. Even almost all the political parties in the State are in support of this demand as such Government of India should come forward and provide justice to Jammu and Kashmir by way of providing compensation and transferring power projects to State.
Present J&K Government is serious in vigorously pursuing the demand for compensation on account of IWT losses which is evident from the fact that it has even set in motion an exercise for quantifying the losses from the experts so that nobody dares to dispute the figures.
Chief Minister has rightly stated that power sector is important for ensuring a turn-around of the State’s economy. His demand for Rs 4800 crore assistance from the Government of India is also justified in view of urgent steps required to be initiated to alleviate suffering of the people because of power shortage. As J&K has suffered immensely because of IWT, there is a need of close cooperation between Centre and the State for producing 9000 MWs of power. The positive outcome, which the Chief Minister’s initiative yielded is that Task Force has agreed to allot Dulhasti-II Hydro Electric Project in Joint Venture mode besides agreeing to put clearance to 1000 MW Pakuldul on fast track.
The platform of Power Ministers’ conference and meeting of Task Force on Development of Hydro Projects was rightly used by the Chief Minister, who is also holding power portfolio, to highlight other burning issues which require urgent attention at the Union Government level. These issues include speeding up of the work on Srinagar-Leh Transmission Line and a special electrification programme for the villages existing on Line of Control, extension of Rs 1300 crore assistance as equity to be contributed by Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation being a component of Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Programme (PMRP), Rs 2500 crore as subordinate loan for enhancing viability of the project, early clearance of 600 MWs Kiru and 520 MWs of Kawar, Rs 1000 crore special central assistance for execution of Baglihar-II project. However, getting one or all of these demands by the Union Government requires regular follow-up from the State Government for which Chief Minister should constitute a high-powered committee. Merely projecting demands without vigorously pursuing the same would not serve any purpose.
Since Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), a flagship scheme of the Union Government, has helped a lot in electrification of un-electrified areas of Jammu and Kashmir, the State has advocated special dispensation for lowering the population criteria of 100 souls per hamlet to 50 souls in order to extend the benefit of scheme to the people living in hilly and remote areas. Keeping in topography of the State, the Union Government must give weightage to this demand. Under the RGGVY-I, 14 projects are under implementation in the State. As against 239 un-electrified villages 187 have been electrified and as against the target of covering 3525 partially electrified villages, intensive electrification in 2962 villages has been achieved and 5140 un-electrified hamlets have also been covered as against the target of covering 6572 partially electrified and un-electrified hamlets.
The Union Government’s move to add 10 more towns under R-APDRP is a welcome step. At present the scheme is under implemented in 30 towns of Jammu and Kashmir and implementation of Part-B of the scheme is commencing soon. The move of the Union Government to add 10 more towns under the scheme is a welcome step and we hope that the scheme will be further extended to all 283 towns with the population of 4000 souls.
No doubt Chief Minister’s initiative has yielded some positive steps in the power sector but he being a Power Minister has a daunting task to reduce AT&C and T&D losses, which remain a matter of serious concern. All other steps would become beneficial for the State only when such losses are reduced considerably. We hope Chief Minister would gear up the official machinery for implementing key reforms in the power sector in letter and spirit.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel