Indus Treaty coming in way of tapping full hydel, irrigation potential: Taj

Jammu, March 14 (Scoop News) – Minister for PHE, Irrigation& Flood Control, Taj Mohi-ud-Din today informed the House that the relevant provisions of Indus Water Treaty are coming in the way of State in utilizing its full hydel and irrigation potential.

Replying to the discussion on the demands of grants of his Ministry, the Minister said the present Government is making serious efforts to put up the State’s case with the centre for compensation. In this regard, he said, area mapping to know the exact land irrigated and water tapped is being don. He said to work out the losses the Centre has sought the services of a consultancy whose report is expected.

Terming the Water Resources Management Act 2010 as a landmark step in preserving the water resources of the State, the Minister said it is hoped that the State would earn revenue of Rs 863 crore annually as user charges from several power projects operating in the State. He regretted that while setting up hydel projects like Salal, Dul Hasti and Uri-I no formal MoUs were signed with the State Government but now section 102 of the Act makes it mandatory for the companies to register themselves with the State Water Resources Regulatory Authority. He said the first set of bills amounting to Rs 66 crore have been generated, out of which the J&K State Power Development Corporation has made the payment while as NHPC has sought two months time.

On Ravi Tawi project, Taj said it was planned in 1973, out of which J&K was supposed to get 0.65 MAF of water. However, he said when the J&K constructed canal upto Lakhanpur Punjab Government came with the plan of constructing joint Ranjit Sagar Dam, which was build on the 65 per cent area of the State. However, he said neither power nor water was given to the State for which J&K waited for 30 years. He said as a result 1.2 lakh kanals of land in Kathua-Samba-Jammu district could not be irrigated. The State Government has decided to construct the balance portion of the canal from Satwain to collect its share of water from the Ravi for which the DPR has been prepared and the Government is getting complete report of the Rs 273 crore project by the end of this month.

Taj said 105 year old Chattabal weir has been reconstructed which was damaged in 1978 and thus an important heritage component of the valley has been restored. He said now Jehlum is fit for inland navigation for cruises etc. from Zero bridge to Chattabal. With this, the historic rest house at Zero bridge which has hosted many international personalities in the past has also been renovated.

On the availability of drinking water, the Minister said the Government has made a plan of Rs 1100 crore for lifting water from Chenab river to meet the growing needs. He said the Government has decided that wherever water would be lifted from any stream, filtration plant would also be set up there. Otherwise, he said there are plans to provide individual filters to the households of the area. He said 60 water testing laboratories have been set up in the State to check the quality of the potable water. He said government has procured three rigs of Rs 10 crore each to bore for the ground water in the areas which are not covered so far.

Taj said dredging would be given a renewed thrust as Kashmir is prone to floods and for many years dredging has not been done that reminding the members of the construction of first flood channel in Kashmir and procurement of first dredge in Kashmir and its inauguration by the then Prime Minister, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru.

The Minister also dwelt in detail about the steps being taken to rationalize the daily rated and casual workers in the department.

Later, the House passed the demand of grants amounting to Rs 143600.10 lakhs for meeting the expenditure of the departments under the charge of the Minister for the year 2011-12 by voice vote. The departments for which the grants were passed included major, irrigation, medium Irrigation, Minor Irrigation, Flood Control and Drainage, Water Supply & Sanitation.

Earlier, Harshdev Singh, M. Y. Tarigami, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta, Nizam-ud-Din Bhat, Ashwani Sharma, Peerzada Mansoor Hussain, Charnajit Singh, A.R. Veeri, Ch. Zulfikar Ali, Rafi Ahmad Mir, Lal Chand, Rafiq Hussain Khan, Balwant Singh Mankotia, Syed Basharat Ahmad Bukhari, Ab. Haq Khan, Er. Abdul Rashid, Ch.Sukhnandan, Bharat Bhushan, Yash Paul Kundal and Dr.Shafi Ahmad Wani had moved their cut motions which they withdrew after hearing the exhaustive and convincing reply of the Minister.

Waters of Niglina nallah won’t be diverted: Taj

Minister for PHE, Irrigation& Flood Control, Taj Mohi-ud-Din today said that no water will be utilized from Niglina Nallah for Rs 33 crore Sopore Water Supply Scheme.

The Minister made the remarks after Sangrama MLA; Basharat Ahmad Bukhari brought the issue in the House. He said diversion of water from Niglina Nallah would directly affect irrigation in 74 villages of his Assembly segment, which will lead to the stoppage of cultivation activities. He pleaded for dropping the idea forthwith.

Taj said the waters of the nallah will, however, continue to be utilized on the pattern as was in vogue 40 years back.

The Speaker, Mohammad Akbar Lone also corroborated the concerns of the legislator while intervening in the matter.