Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 16: Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE), Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Lal Choudhary today said to provide potable water to a population of over 1.25 crore is a challenge for the department and informed the House that Government envisages minimizing existing water supply gaps by tapping more sources of water and conserving the existing available resources.
Winding up discussion on demand of grants for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Departments in the Assembly, the Minister said that the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu having combined population of over 26 lakh requires 135.13 MGD of drinking water, while as the Department is only able to supply only 114.86 MG on daily basis.
Choudhary said that in order to further augment the drinking water facility in Srinagar city two water supply schemes costing Rs 269. 37 crore are apace under JNNURM. He said Rs 224.83 crore have been utilised on the construction of these WSS upto last financial year. He said construction of WSS Sukhnag and Tangnar are being completed during current financial year.
The Minister said that to meet the future water demand of Jammu city, a detailed project report of Rs 886 crore has been formulated and submitted to Union Ministry of Urban Development for sanction of funds. He said that under town scheme, 70 WSS, including 44 in Jammu with an estimated cost of Rs 277.44 crore are under execution in different towns of the State.
Under Rural Water Supply Schemes, Choudhary said that the State has a rural population of 91.08 lakh which is spread over 15798 habitations. He said under NRDWP 1461 Water Supply Schemes are coming up with an estimated cost of Rs 2625.18 crore and against which expenditure of Rs 1127.91 crore has been booked up to last financial year. He further said construction work of 182 water supply schemes is expected to be completed during current financial year which would provide drinking water facility to 317 more habitations of the State.
The Minister said that to ensure supply of quality drinking water, 22 laboratories have been established at district headquarters besides two State Level labs one each at Srinagar and Jammu have been set up.
He said that 695 deep drilled hand pumps will be completed during current financial year besides 339 rural schools would be provided drinking water facility.
Referring to the Irrigation and FC sectors, the Minister said that a comprehensive plan for up-gradation of irrigation system has been formulated. He said new irrigation canals, improvement and extension of existing irrigation system have been prioritised to enhance agriculture productivity in the State.
He said that the Union Government has launched a new programme Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna (PMKSY) for which the Department is formulating a comprehensive project report to Centre for approval of funds for further augmenting irrigation facilities in the State.
Referring to the restoration of 2014 flood damaged projects, Choudhary said that 5852 Irrigation and Flood Control works besides 2936 WSS have been restored on war footing basis to provide immediate succour to the people.
Later, the House passed the grants of PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control Departments, for the year 2016-17, which were moved by the Minister, amounting to Rs 3045.50 crore.
Earlier, taking part in the discussion, Khalil Bhand said the PHE division for district Pulwama is at Shopian and the people are facing difficulties. He demanded Irrigation and Flood Control sub-division for Litter Pulwama .
Sat Sharma said that in Jammu city the water requirement is 47.5 MGD per day but total availability from all the sources is only 45.5 MGD as such there is a shortfall of 2 MGD. He said that 40% water gets wasted as the pipes have not been replaced since independence.
“The frequent power cuts further increase problem of water shortage as pumping stations stop functioning in the absence of electricity”, he said and demanded replacement of all worn out pipes especially in Jammu West constituency where 160 kilometer length is required to be replaced at the earliest.
Stating that PHE Department has made unproductive investment, Sat Sharma said that all the defunct tubewell should be re-developed and operationalized for which only meager investment is required. He also stressed the need to establish check drams in Kandi areas on the pattern of Gujarat and clearance of all the impediments in early start of work on Chenab Water Supply Scheme.
Pawan Gupta, while highlighting discrimination with Jammu region, said that under State Sector Capex Budget funds to the tune of Rs 1087 lakh under Major-Medium Irrigation, Rs 425 lakh under Minor Irrigation and Rs 2475 lakh under Flood Control Sector have been released in respect of Irrigation and Flood Control Department Jammu during the year 2015-16.
However, for Kashmir region, an amount of Rs 3640.37 lakh was released under Major-Medium Irrigation, Rs 229.33 lakh under Minor Irrigation and Rs 15665.14 lakh was released under Flood Control Sector. “This indicates that Jammu region has been discriminated with”, he added.
He also alleged discrimination with Udhampur district as far as funds for Lift Irrigation Scheme are concerned.
Akbar Lone demanded dredging of river Jehlum and flood spill channel in his constituency. He said that the pumps of lift Irrigation schemes are outdated and demanded installation of new pumps for these schemes. He demanded repair of Irrigation canals.
Bashir Ahmad Dar said that there are 40 water supply schemes under NRGW and they are yet to be completed when the completion time was 2 years. Javed Mustafa Mir suggested that the MLAs should contribute for purchasing of water tankers.
Aijaz Ahmad Khan said that grants for the department are not sufficient as only 2-3 water supply schemes are being covered under it which is insufficient. “There are several schemes in my constituency which failed as source dried. What is the department doing for augmenting the source”, he asked.
Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen said that the main reason for the failure of the water supply schemes is source. “We don’t need any new water supply scheme but the older ones need to be revived and augmented”, he said.
Rajesh Gupta said that power problem is one of the main reason for failure of water schemes. He said that wastage of water should be taken care of and blamed lack of work culture for this. He said that e-tendering should be for works above Rs 5 lakh and for small works there should be no e-tendering.
Mian Altaf said that there is lot of misappropriation of funds and corruption involved in PHE and Irrigation and Flood Control Department. He said that the strengthening of banks of river Sindh was not done at critical spots.
Engineer Abdul Rashid Sheikh targeted Engineers for not addressing the problems of the MLAs and demanded that a commission be set up to look into the assets of the engineers and Government employees who have amassed huge wealth.
Abdul Rasheed Dar said that there are 8 water supply schemes in his constituency where work is going on for several years but no scheme has been completed. Rajeev Jasrotia said that two flood projects in constituency be submitted to the Government of India. Mohammad Shafi Uri said out of 18 irrigation schemes only 2 have been completed in his constituency for last 5-8 years.
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