B R Gupta
It is crystal clear that any dictum issued by the politicians, in chair, becomes the law for unapproachable folk of the people or society in the State. But politicians, at times do so, without properly realizing its pros and cons.
For example, many of the projects of Jammu region were prepared after thoughtful consideration and spending lot of money to arrive at the conclusion of the project after seeking considered opinions of the experts till its finalization such as Tawi Artificial lake, Gandola projects, development of Mansar and Surinsar lakes in Jammu region. Crores of rupees have been spent on them but still lurking in the air. The roads are in a dilapidated conditions and the traffic face impediments in the way to ply on it and restrict themselves to ply on that road. The repairs of such roads have totally been ignored. Secondly, after spending more than half billion rupees on Artificial Tawi lake it has been shelved with simple announcement made by the Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed without assigning any cogent reasons, digestable to the people of the region, except that “it is not feasible” despite the facts that this prestigious project passing through many channels has been vetted finally by the Central Water Commission and was given green nod and provided funding only after the High Powered Technical Committee of the Commission visited the site and examined all the required parameters and was declared fully viable and feasible. All of the concerned Chief Engineers have also given their consent after going through all norms and parameters set for the same.
It is felt that the CM has not been made conversant with the benefits of this prestigious artificial Lake project worth Rs 70 crores on river Tawi in the winter capital city. It was basically conceived with the idea to recharge ground water as many tube wells in this Kandi belt are getting dry with the depleting water table. At the same time irrigative source of water is becoming defunct in some adjoining areas such as Chatha, Tawi island villages and Miran Sahib etc and as per considered opinion of then PHE and I&FC Minister Taj Mohiuddin the enhanced irrigation facilities after getting 700 to 800 cusecs of water, the economic conditions of the farmers of this belt will also improve. Majority of the people of this belt grow vegetables and it would improve their production and raise economic conditions of the poor farmers.
The artificial lake, so created, on river Tawi with greenery parks along both sides and an island park, will ultimately attract lakhs of pilgrims tourists coming to Mata Vaishno Devi, Shri Budha Amar Nath Ji, Shri Amarnath Yatra and they will enjoy the boating ride in the lake. Moreover, Jammuites will enjoy cool breeze along the river banks during hot summer months. The lake will definitely decrease the temperature of the surrounding localities during hot summer months. And, as such, there will be no environmental threat to the lake from city nallahs which are being diverted through side channels by UEED down stream about 300 meters down the gated structures, thereby alleviating the doubts of water pollution of Tawi water due to nallahs of the city.
It is said by concerned retired and in service Chief Engineers and other experts that there is no logic to suspend the said project after the execution of 90 percent work with a cost of more than half a million rupees out of the total cost of Rs 70 crores after the approval from all concerned quarters including Central Water Commission of India, declaring it technically, economically and environmentally viable and feasible project but sudden and unthoughtfully shelving the project makes the people of Jammu region including the adjoining farmers to think deeply about the decision of the Government.
The Representatives of the people of Jammu region should awake from deep slumber and raise their voice to meet the needs of the region. Even the ministers in Government belonging to BJP, being lulled in the lap of PDP, should also open their eyes and ears and listen to the versions of Modi Sahib of good governance with minimum Government’ and be attentive towards their voters who have made them sit in the chairs of governance. They should follow the foot prints of Mufti Sahib that how much he is trying to develop Kashmir region by virtue of tourism industry and other industries putting all out efforts to beautify tourist spots besides other developmental works taken in hand.
Thanks to some political and non political associations who are raising hue and cry and arranging strikes and bandhs in the interest of Jammu region a signal has been sent to Government not to ignore Jammuites. Keeping in view the sentiments of the Jammu region, the Government should revisit the planning of shelving the Tawi Artificial Lake Project and simultaneously take immediate steps to complete other projects including developmental work of Mansar and Surinsar lakes which are natural Tourist Resorts but the basic need is road connectivity which has been ignored by the Government and the concerned MLAs. The people of several villages, right from Samba to Udhampur belt are put to suffer due to bad condition of the existing road.
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