Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 9: The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement document between NHPC and Jammu and Kashmir Government on Dul Hasti Power Project (DHPP) are reportedly missing.
The information was given by Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, who also holds the Power Ministry. He said there is no agreement or MoU available with the State Government on the terms and conditions under which Dul Hasti Power Project was executed by NHPC.
Replying to a question by Firdous Tak, a PDP leader in the Legislative Council (LC) today, the Dy CM said, in 2011, a Cabinet Sub Committee (CSC) was constituted to look into various issues arising from the sterm and conditions of entrustment of Hydroelectric projects to the NHPC in the State.
He said the committee too could not find any agreement or MoU under which Dul Hasti Power project was entrusted to NHPC for execution. When the report of the CSC was submitted to the cabinet, it was observed that most important document which will determine financial implications and responsibilities of various stakeholders State Government, Central Government and NHPC was the MoU.
However, as per the report of the CSC the relevant agreement is not available on the record, the reply said. The CSC points out that misplacement of record pertaining to an important cabinet decision is a serious matter and it recommends that a Task Force of senor officers of the State be constituted to look into the circumstances leading to the misplacement of these records and to fix responsibility for lapses.
The Minister said accordingly a Task Force under the chairmanship of Administrative Secretary General administration with three additional secretaries (from Power Development Department, General Administration Department and Governor’s secretariat) was formed on May 22, 2012.
The reply in the Legislative Council said that as recorded by the Task Force (TF) in its report, the relevant records were found missing from all the concerned offices PDD, GDA and Governors secretariat.
The TF could not fix responsibility for the disappearance of the record. It, however, recorded that the misplacement of the record pertaining to the referent Cabinet Decision was reparted first in 1984 but the record could not be traced despite repeated searches. The TF concluded that the Cabinet Decision was un-traceable and there was not any possibility of its retrieval. Though the TF observed that the misplacement of these records appeared to be a deliberate act, it could not fix responsibility for its misplacement as the records were around four decades old and no handing over or taking over of records had taken place.
The reply said that the matter is being pursued with Ministry of Power, Government of India and NHPC.
The Minister said that as per the Environment clearance accorded by Ministry of Science and Technology, GoI, during 1979, NHPC was not under obligation to ensure catchment area development near the Dam site or Dool during the construction of the project.
However, subsequently a Centrally sponsored scheme titled “ Greening Himalyas-Dulhati (Kishtwar) Catchment Doda district of J&K was formulated by the state Soil Conservation Department during 1989 at a total cost of Rs 280 lakhs. The reply said that as per Corporate CSR&SD policy and MoU thereof signed with ministry of power GoI, on yearly basis, Dulhasti Power station has been undertaking loal area development works since its commissioning.
Accordingly since 2007-08 to 2015-16 an expenditure of Rs 6.28 crore has been incurred on local area development, the reply said adding that NHPC does not pay any royalty out of its profit to J&K. However, since commercial operation of Dulhasti power station on April 7,2007, NHPC is providing 12 per cent free royalty from the power state to state as per allocation order issued by GoI.
The reply said accordingly since April 2007 Dulhasti has provided 2354.02 MU of electricity equivalent to Rs 1197 crore in value to J&K government upto March 2016.
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