Controversy over the shifting of AIIMS from Jammu to Kashmir had hardly died down when a fresh controversy has cropped up that is bound to agitate the people of Jammu further. The Chief Minister recently announced that the prestigious project of artificial lake on river Tawi would be shelved owing to its non-feasibility. This sparked a volley of questions from political leadership in Jammu as well as Jammu civil society who are contesting the argument of non-feasibility.
The theory of long time needed to fill the lake does not seem to have takers for more than one reason. The foundation stone for the artificial lake project on the river was laid six years ago in 2009 by the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah heading Congress-NC regime. Projects that involve a huge amount of money, about 70 crore rupees in this case, are not seen through unless great deal of spadework is done by policy planners, experts, engineers, revenue officials, tourism managers and many others concerned with it. How can we dismiss such a stupendous exercise so cursorily and declare it non-feasible. In a democratic set up governments come and go. But the developmental work is neither arrested nor reversed by succeeding governments. An incoming government is as much responsible to the people who vote it to power as the outgoing one. An incoming government will not be entitled to any credit if it cancels a well-planned project floated by the previous government unless there is the agreement of the masses of people for its reversal.
We are aware that Technical Committee of Central Water Commission and State agencies and its qualified engineers joined heads to formulate the DPRs. They must have taken all aspects of the project into consideration before the draft project report was finalized. Now to call it non-feasible is tantamount to questioning the technical expertise of Central and State engineers and experts.
Once the DPR was approved and work on the project began, nobody from the ruling or opposition benches raised any objection. The work on the project has been going on for last four or five years. In between, teams of highly qualified technical experts continued making intermittent inspections. Not only that, even a Pakistani team also visited the site because Pakistan had raised some objections and lodged complaints before the World Bank alleging that India was violating the clauses of Indus Water Treaty. The World Bank deputed its team to report on the feasibility of the artificial lake and on the basis of its report declared that no violation had been made. This silenced Pakistan. So far nearly 55 crore rupees have been spent on the project and 90 per cent of the work has been completed. The State government is supposed to pay its share of 20 crore rupees which is still pending. Only mechanical works of raising gates are left.
The question will be asked why the BJP, which was in opposition during the NC-Congress government that had floated the project, did not raise any objection of the sort that is being raised by it and its coalition partner now. Do they want to play the second fiddle to the senior partner at the cost of the aspirations of the people of Jammu? Are they swayed by lust for power to the extent that they close their eyes to the interests and aspirations of the people who have voted them to power? The proposed Tawi Artificial Lake is not the only type of lake that is undertaken by our State. If Sukhna Lake at Chandigarh or Dal Lake, an off-shoot of Jhelum, could be feasible, why this Tawi Lake could not be feasible, is a pertinent question that shall have to be answered. The authorities plea that the embankments of Tawi would be beautified and made visitor friendly is no answer to shelving the lake. The proposed artificial lake is envisaged to have both tourist as well as commercial utility for the city of Jammu rather the entire region. It could become one of the picnic spots for millions of pilgrims coming to the holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi. It would give impetus to recreational and excursion activity of the people of the winter capital who do not have any good and attractive picnic spots in close proximity of the city. The proposed lake would also contribute to lowering the temperature of the city during hot summer and thousand of residents of the city would find a grand recreational outlet. When the banks of the proposed lake would be given landscape touch, it would really become an attractive place to visit.
In final analysis, we would like to bring home to the coalition government that the people of Jammu region are deeply angered on the shifting of the AIIMS to Kashmir calling it a betrayal by BJP and putting it forward as an argument to show that discrimination against Jammu has not ended. Shelving of the artificial lake project will only add fuel to the fire. This government needs a period of peace and tranquility to attend to important works of development and to address many urgent tasks. If it takes controversial decisions that infuriate the masses of people either in Kashmir or in Jammu, it will be disastrous for it. Prudence says that it should desist from running into controversies. It should never think of testing the patience of people. To remove the doubts in minds of people, the Chief Minister should immediately issue instructions to invite a team of experts from outside the State and ask them to re-visit the project in its entirety and submit a fresh feasibility report. Our country has world class engineers and experts and they are highly dedicated people. Let us trust their expertise and proceed.
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