Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 21: Astonishing it may sound but it is a fact that authorities concerned have failed to finalize design of pump house of a Lift Irrigation Scheme in Basohli tehsil of Kathua district for years together. Due to this, an amount of Rs 3.54 crore has gone down the drain and people have been denied of the intended benefits of the scheme.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in order to provide timely and assured irrigation facilities to command cultivable area of 283 hectares in village Mandla in Basohli tehsil of Kathua district, a Lift Irrigation Scheme estimated to cost Rs 4.44 crore was approved in September 2008 by the Technical Advisory Committee of the Irrigation Department for execution under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP).
The project involving construction of pump house at a cost of Rs 1.21 crore, installation of vertical turbine pump sets at a cost of Rs 2.29 crore and other allied works, which include delivery tank at a cost of Rs 0.89 lakh, main channel costing Rs 45.11 lakh etc, was to be completed within a period of three years in order to lift water from Ranjeet Sagar dam on river Ravi up to delivery tank at hill top where the main canal was to be fed with the water for irrigation purpose.
During the period from 2009-10 to 2011-12 an amount of Rs 5.02 crore, which include Central share of Rs 5 crore and State share of Rs 2 lakh, was released in favour of the Executive Engineer, Irrigation Division, Kathua under the AIBP, sources said.
They disclosed that tenders for construction of Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) pump house invited in the year 2009 were not responded to despite being extended three times between January and February 2010. Even the Jammu and Kashmir Project Construction Corporation Limited (JKPCC) expressed its inability to execute this work. “Moreover, the construction through an alternative design (floating structure pump house) was also found un-economical and unfeasible by a private agency in August 2010”, sources added.
Consequently, the RCC pump house was re-designed and the revised design was submitted to the Chief Engineer, Designs, Inspections and Quality Control in November 2011. Meanwhile, in anticipation of finalization of design and structure of the pump house, the Executive Engineer incurred an expenditure of Rs 3.54 crore during the period between 2009 and 2012 on procurement of machinery, material, construction of main canal and miscellaneous works and contingencies. The Executive Engineer, however, surrendered Rs 1.48 crore as the further work on the project could not be executed.
As the design and structure for the pump house could not be finalized, the Executive Engineer, Mechanical Irrigation Construction Division Jammu could also not procure the machinery. “The inordinate delay in finalization of design and structure was pointed out more than one and half year back at the highest level but till date there is no further development on the issue”, sources said.
“Due to failure of the departmental authorities to finalize design of the pump house, expenditure of Rs 3.54 crore has gone down the drain and denied intended benefits of the scheme to the people of the area”, sources regretted.
When contacted, Executive Engineer, Irrigation Division Kathua, Vijay Kumar confirmed that design of the pump house was yet to be finalized. “We are still awaiting for the design so that work could get executed and the scheme is made functional”, he added.
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