Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 27: Senior Congress leader and former Legislator Thakur Balbir Singh today stressed upon the Jammu and Kashmir administration to expedite the ongoing work on the Shahpur-Kandi project.
After meeting Principal Secretary Irrigation and Flood Control Department Ashok Parmar, Th Balbir Singh appreciated the steps taken by the authorities to complete the project as early as possible. He hoped that the ambitious project would be completed by the set deadline.
He said that higher-ups of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department have taken some effective steps to accelerate ongoing work.
Highlighting the importance of the project, Singh said that hundreds of farmers of the draught-prone Kandi belt of Samba and Kathua districts are waiting anxiously for the completion of the project.
Farmers of these two districts are hoping that the UT government would expedite work on this project after signing of the fresh agreement with the Punjab Government after solving all disputes.
“Keeping in view its importance, we are hoping completion of the project would be the priority of the J&K Government”, he said.
This project is going to change the destiny of thousands of farmers in Jammu province so there is a need to complete this project as early as possible.
Singh reminded that in the year 1979, the then governments of J&K and Punjab had signed a bilateral agreement on sharing water from the Ravi. As per the agreement J&K will get 1,150 cusecs of water of the river by constructing a canal from Satwain to Basantpur and it will irrigate over hectares of land but its construction is yet to begin. Due to some dispute work on the construction of canal was not started.
Notable On March 3, 2017, the governments of J&K and Punjab signed a fresh deal for the completion of the Shahpur Kandi canal after solving all disputes. He said that for so many years thousands of hectares of agricultural land in the Kandi belt of southern districts, one of the poorest regions of J&K has remained deprived of irrigation facilities.
Meanwhile, the former MLA reiterated his demanded that the proposed Kathua-North Assembly Constituency should be renamed as Jasrota Assembly Constituency to fulfill the demand of the locals. Singh said he has brought this matter to the notice of Delimitation Commission as well.
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