Badal Govt puts pressure on J&K to withdraw Rs 11,500 cr ‘claim’ of Shahpur Kandi barrage

*We will not leave claim, want duel control of Ravi water: Minister

Gopal Sharma

JAMMU, May 29:  While the Punjab Government team led by its Chief Secretary failed to reach Srinagar on May 25 to hold dialogue with the J&K Government  over the  Shahpur Kandi barrage and Ravi river water sharing issue, the Akali Dal (Badal)-BJP Govt in Punjab is said to be exerting pressure on the J&K Government to withdraw over Rs 11,500 crore claim of power  and agriculture losses projected by the State.
Chief Secretary, B R Sharma told the Excelsior that the Punjab Government team led by its Chief  Secretary was supposed to arrive in Srinagar on May 25 for meeting over the Ravi water sharing issue, construction of Shahpur Kandi barrage and hold discussion on the accumulated losses project by the J&K Government. But they have failed to reach here.
“We received a message from a senior functionary in Punjab Government regarding the postponement of their visit to J&K for holding dialogue due to some personal reasons and engagements of the Chief Secretary. They will communicate us regarding the next date of  meeting over the issue later,” Sharma said.
Highly placed sources revealed that Prakash Singh Badal-led Akali-BJP Government in Punjab is exerting pressure on the PDP-BJP Coalition Government in J&K through Union Government to withdraw claim of  losses projected by the J&K State on account of  denial of power (electricity) share from Ranjit Sagar Dam for the last over 17 years and also Agriculture losses suffered by the State for more than 32 years in Kathua and Samba belts. Over 1.33 lakh acre of land has been denied irrigation facilities so far.
Stating the reason, the sources revealed that without taking J&K Government into confidence, Punjab Government went ahead with its project worth Rs 2300 crore to construct Shahpur Kandi barrage after J&K declared that it would construct canal from Satwain near Thein in own territory to get its much denied water share from the dam.  Punjab was getting funds from the Centre  for the project and on the complaint of the J&K Government  on August 14, 2014, the Centre stopped funding to Punjab. It had managed to construct nearly 700 metres of  concrete  canal and now the work on the project has been abandoned.
The J&K did not allow construction of  work of canal on its land near Basantpur and also removed machinery last year by sending DC and SSP Kathua at the site near Basantpur.  Now, the Punjab Government is desperate for the settlement of the issue as they have already spent huge amount on this project.
The sources further disclosed that as per decision of the inter-state conference held at New Delhi on January 29, 1955, the J&K State had to get 0.69 MAF ( partition share) water from Ravi river. The agreement was also signed between Government of Punjab  and J&K State on January 10,1979, wherein it was agreed  that Shahpur Kandi barrage shall be constructed by the Punjab Government which was proposed about 12 kms of down stream of Ranjit Sagar dam.
For the construction of dam, J&K  Government acquired 1,11,740 kanals of land of 22 villages of Basohli and Kathua. As per agreement,  J&K was entitled  to get  20 % of  power share generated from this dam. For this,  J&K Government also laid double circuit 220 KVA transmission line. With the construction of Shahpur Kandi barrage, 1150 cusecs of water was to be released for J&K which has not been released till date due to non-construction of this barrage by Punjab Government.
The State also suffered  agriculture losses for 1.33 lakh acres of  land which has been deprived of irrigation facilities over the years,  resulting in the losses at the rate Rs 2.50 crore per annum and the total agriculture loss for the last 32 years has been put at  around Rs 7500 crore till date.
The power losses to the State in 17 years have been put at  Rs 4000 crore  whereas, the loss on account of  non-payment of full land compensation has worked out around Rs 92 crore. Besides this, out of the 767 oustees, 204 dam oustees are yet to be provided employment. He disclosed that the total loss caused to the State has been put more than Rs 11,500 crore as of now.
A recently retired Chief Engineer associated with the project when contacted said that  river Tawi is one of the tributaries of river Chenab which is main river of Indus Water Treaty, for which the rights of irrigation have been restricted to 50,000 acres of land. The cultivable command area of Tawi canal is nearly 35,000 acres but due to restrictions,  it has been limited to 32,200 acres. It has been further restricted to 27,600 acres on the completion of  Ravi  canal network. There is also loss in the crop production in the Command area of Tawi canal due to lifting of  less water from river Tawi because of this Treaty. He admitted that State has been put to major loss due to Indus Water Treaty.
He further said the Punjab Government scrapped the Treaty of 1979 between the two States in its Legislature in 2004 without bothering for J&K, now there is no point in allowing the Punjab Dam authorities to work on the project.
Earlier, they denied due share of power from Thein Dam to the J&K State and Irrigation water facilities for over two decades by not commencing work on the Shahpur Kandi barrage, now when J&K Government projected losses of over 11,500 crore and demanded from Punjab, they made up mind to go for construction of project at its own will. Even they went for arbitration and it went against Punjab Government. The J&K Government has already conveyed to Punjab that they are no more interested in Shahpur Kandi barrage and would construct own channel  from Satwain side near Thein and prepare own Irrigation project by taking own water share from the dam.
Chief Engineer RTIC,  H C Herath  said that J&K State has suffered massive losses as the Punjab has denied State’s share of electricity and water from the Ranjit Sagar dam constructed on river Ravi at Thein in Basohli.   He said J&K State has been denied share by the Punjab despite the fact that a bilateral agreement was reached between the two Governments before taking up the work on the project in 1979.
The Punjab has now prepared Rs 2300 crore project for Shahpur Kandi barrage and it has allotted contract to some agency but the same has been now abandoned due to stoppage of funds by the Centre. J&K has already been working on Rs 275 crore Irrigation canal  project from Satwain to Basantpur. About 9 km canal  is proposed to be constructed including 6 kms tunnel.
The second phase of it would be power project worth Rs 135 crores and total project cost would Rs 410 crore.  Total 30 MW power would be generated from these two small power projects of  21 MW and 9 MW capacities. The State Government as per its Cabinet decision has kept 10 % of the funds out of Water Tax collected from Hydel Power projects for this purpose, he maintained.
However, Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Choudhary when contacted claimed that there was no pressure on them regarding early settlement of the dispute or surrendering of the claim. He said that J&K has already suffered a lot due to denial of power and water share and the State will not surrender its claim. The Minister further said that the work on the proposed canal from Satwain  to Basantpur has been stopped for the time being and after a decision in the Cabinet regarding funding, the work can be taken up. He said that funds generated as the water usage tax   from NHPC and other hydel projects is not allowed to be used for this canal and power project.
Choudhary said that next Chief Secretary level talks between two States would be held shortly to settle the dispute as they have received a request from the Punjab Government.

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