Again if a 275 crore rupee project, the Satwain Canal project, has run into difficulty, it is nothing surprising. What would be surprising is if it had a smooth sailing. That is not the case. A lot of midnight oil has been burnt in finalizing this project. At one point of time it was considered success of good neighborliness to have arrived at a mutual understanding in utilizing the waters flowing through common border of J&K and Punjab. The project was to take a canal of water 9.084 kilometer in length from upstream of Ranjit Sagar dam to existing canal at Basantpur. The water thus drawn from the Ranjit Sagar Dam would irrigate about 32186 hectares of Kathua district. Much spade work had been done on the aspects of this dam and engineers spent lot of time on making the blue print. The State Cabinet gave nod to the project called Satwain project.
But at the last moment, the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has put certain conditions before giving clearance to the project. Their opinion is that the canal is too close to the core of the Ranjit Sagar Dam and unless there is clearance from the Geological Department of the Government of India, the project cannot move forward. The question arises why did not the State Planning Department or the Engineering agency take this and other relevant issues into consideration and without doing that moved forward to obtain the nod of the Cabinet to the project. Presuming that the Expert Committee does not recommend construction of the canal for drawing water from Ranjit Sagar Dam, what is the option left for the State Government. In that case is all the labour a waste and will the large number of farmers who had pinned their hope in the development of Kathua farming be disappointed for all times. We cannot pass any judgment on the technical aspect of the project. All that we say is why not our policy planners and engineers did take all aspects of the project into account before finally deciding to launch it. They are answerable to the people of the State.
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