Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 17: The construction of much-needed Ravi Canal from Basantpur up to the inflow of Ranjit Sagar dam reservoir has been delayed further as the State Cabinet today stressed the need to obtain legal opinion of Solicitor General and Attorney General of India so that J&K don’t face any legal problem from the Punjab Government while executing the project.
Sources told EXCELSIOR that when the proposal of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department seeking administrative approval for construction of balance portion of main Ravi Canal from Basantpur was taken up in the Cabinet, the Minister for Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather stressed the need to obtain fresh legal opinion from Attorney General and Solicitor General of India.
“In the absence of legal opinion of these authorities execution of the project would not be a wise decision in view of dispute with Punjab”, it was stated in the Cabinet meeting.
Though the Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Taj Mohi-ud-Din stated that legal opinion of former Chief Justice of India, Justice V N Khare and former Solicitor General of India, Arminder Saran has already been obtained on the issue, the Finance Minister remained unsatisfied and stick to his stand of obtaining fresh legal opinion particularly from the serving Solicitor General and Attorney General, sources informed.
After thorough discussion, the Cabinet found it appropriate to seek fresh legal opinion and decided to take up the issue thereafter, sources said, adding “with this decision the project, whose fate is hanging in balance during the past six months, has further been delayed”.
The project, however, assumes great significance in view of the fact that it will irrigate nearly 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. Besides, another important aspect is that the project also has the potential to produce nearly 20 MW of power for the State.
Meanwhile, Cabinet accorded sanction to the creation of 322 posts of Dental Assistants. This decision would go a long way in mitigating the unemployment problem of qualified medical staff in the State.
The Cabinet also accorded sanction to the roll out of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), a poverty eradication programme through J&K State Rural Livelihood Society (SRLS).
NRLM is a universal social mobilization programme under which at least one member from each rural poor and vulnerable household, preferably woman, will be brought within the net of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in a time bound manner. The scheme will facilitate creation of a platform and nurturing them with continuous capacity building support. The Mission aims to reduce poverty in rural areas by building strong grassroots institutions for the poor, engage them into gainful livelihood intervention and ensure appreciable improvement in their income on a sustainable basis.
The expenses for the Mission will be shared between Centre and State initially in the ratio of 75:25. The Self Help Groups of 10-15 women will be formed in their immediate neighbourhood. Each 25 to 30 groups will be federated so as to organize Self Help Groups into a bigger forum to provide financial and other support.
For the purpose, an amount of Rs 17 crore has been allocated by the Union Rural Development Ministry to J&K for the current year. To start with four resource blocks in the State have been selected, two each in Kashmir and Jammu divisions. Director, Rural Sanitation J&K will be the Mission Director J&K SRLS.
Meanwhile, the Union Ministry will make a special proposal to the Union Cabinet for delinking the allotment of funds to the State on the basis of Poverty Ratio so as to ensure sufficient funding to cover the entire Jammu and Kashmir over a short period.
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