Govt to use legal options on Rattle

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 15: State Government has directed the Advocate General to use all the legal options to remove bottlenecks in the way of restarting work on abandoned 850 Mega Watts Rattle Hydroelectric Project on River Chenab in Kishtwar district.
The directions were given by Minister for Law and Justice, Abdul Haq Khan during a special meeting convened to discuss the legal course of action with regard to construction of Rattle Power Project. Advocate General, Commissioner/Secretary, Power Development Department, Managing Director J&K State Power Development Corporation and Law Secretary were present in the meeting.
Deliberations were held on reasons of delay in the project and the future course of action to be taken with regard to the construction of the project and fixing responsibility regarding the delay. The meeting discussed the legal procedure to be followed by the Government so that work on the project is started at earliest.
After detailed discussion, the Minister directed the officials to expedite the work to find alternatives so that work on the Rattle HEP is re-started. He also asked the Advocate General to use all legal options to remove the bottle necks in the project.
It is pertinent to mention here that EXCELSIOR in its edition dated November 11 had exclusively highlighted that PDP-BJP Government has not paid any serious attention towards initiating steps for resumption of work on Rattle Project, which was abandoned over two years back.
Following this, the issue was discussed at the highest level in the Government and finally Law Minister today issued directions for taking all legal steps to facilitate restart of work.