Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Sept 3: After strong protest by the senior Minister, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today intervened to get clearance for the construction of remaining portion of the prestigious Ravi Canal project aimed at bringing green revolution in parts of Jammu province.
Rs 275.15 crore project of construction of Balance Portion/Extension of main Ravi canal upstream Ravi river from Basantpur right upto the inflow of Reservoir of Ranjit Sagar Dam was caught in bureaucratic hurdles for past two-and-a-half years after it got Cabinet nod in 2010.
Minister for PHE, Flood Control and Irrigation, Taj Mohi-ud-din, told Excelsior that Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather was sitting on the file of the project, finance’s for which are raised by his Ministry on its own. He said that the project will irrigate 1.33 lakh acres of land in three districts of Jammu province for which 82 kilometer canal and 500 kilometer tributaries were constructed 30 years back.
He said that he shot off a letter to Chief Minister about Finance Ministry creating hurdles in clearing the project last week and was assured that the project will be cleared. Taj Mohi-ud-din said that the file was cleared today after CM asked Finance Ministry to clear it and the work on the project would be launched soon.
The Minister said that State has suffered loss to the tune of around Rs 9000 crore due to non-implementation agreement with Punjab for drawing water for irrigation and power share from Ranjit Sagar Dam during past 30 years.
Frustrated over non-clearance of the project despite his untiring efforts, the Minister last week announced boycott of the future Cabinet meetings to pressurize the Government. Last week the Minister boycotted the Cabinet meeting in protest against the non-clearance of the file by the Finance Department. “It is waste of time to sit in a Cabinet meeting whose decisions are not honoured”, the Minster told Excelsior when asked about his boycott to the Cabinet meetings.
The Cabinet in its decision (No. 41/2/2010 dated 15-02-2010) had granted approval to the project of construction of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department taking off at village Satwain upto Basantpur where existing Ravi Canal starts. The Cabinet had directed the Irrigation and Flood Control Department to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for project and submit it for the approval after obtaining all necessary approvals and concurrence of Planning and Finance Department.
The Cabinet had also formed a sub-committee consisting Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Minister for Rural Development, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Minister for Public Health, Irrigation and Flood Control. Its job was to examine all relevant aspects of dispute with Punjab.
The Cabinet sub-committee in a strong letter (No. PW/Hyd/P&S/IWT/2009/702 dated 25-06-2010) to the Punjab Government declined to lease out 500 acres of land to the Punjab for the construction of Shahpur Kandi Barrage from which Government of J&K was to draw water as per 1979 agreement. The letter said that even the compensation for the land provided for Ranjit Sagar Dam was not given to the State under 1979 agreement.
The letter asked the Punjab Government to compensate the losses suffered by J&K State for past 30 years due to non-implementation of the agreement by Punjab. It demanded power share of 40 percent from Ranjit Sagar dam to compensate the previous power loses. The letter also threatened the Punjab of legal re-course in case it fails to pay the compensation.
According to Minister, the Finance and the Law Departments of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir raised queries as if it looked they were pleading the Punjab’s case. The Minister said: “Former Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India, V N Khare, while going through the documents given to him for legal opinion asked him which side are the Law and Finance Departments of J&K.” He had asked are they pleading Punjab’s case or J&K’s?
The legal opinion of the Former Additional Solicitor General of India Amarendra Saran also criticized the State’s Law Department and said J&K’s case is genuine.
The Finance Department in its queries had declared the project as wasteful expenditure in case Punjab did not allow drawing of water from Ranjit Sagar Dam. Minister Taj Mohi-ud-din said that J&K is not drawing water from Punjab territory but from its own river and from its own territory at village Satwain and Punjab has no locus standi in disallowing drawl of water from Rajit Sagar Dam whose 65 percent territory belongs to Jammu and Kashmir State and the State has 0.69 MAF water share from the RSD which has the guarantee of Government of India.
The Finance Department had also raised the query of termination of the all water sharing agreements by Punjab with the neighboring States in 2004 to which Cabinet sub-committee had already provided the answer. The Minister said that the queries of the Finance Department and Law Department were unreasonable and it looked if they were batting for Punjab and not the Jammu and Kashmir State.
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