Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 3: J&K National Panthers Party (NPP) legislator (MLC) Sayed Rafiq Shah staged walk-out of the Legislative Council after the Chairman Amrit Malhotra rejected his demand of announcing a House Committee to inquire into the alleged irregularities and favouritism in installation of hand pumps in district Kupwara and many other places.
Minister for PHE, I&FC Sham Lal Sharma was responding to the question and subsequent supplementaries raised by Panthers Party member in the House. The member asked what was the criteria of identifying the areas where such hand pumps are installed whether they are installed with the recommendations of the MLAs/ MLCs or Minister or by the department at its own or has any such devised policy for the same.
The members also alleged that at many places such pumps are installed on political considerations while many deserving areas have been ignored. He said it is installed only on the recommendations of influential people having access to the PHE Minister. The NPP member alleged that there was blatant violation of norms/ guidelines and in some villages scores of such pumps were installed while many were ignored. He demanded that it was another scandal and a House Committee be announced for the same.
Several other members including Jehangir Hussain Mir, Javed Rana Naresh Kumar Gupta, Ravinder Sharma, Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardy, B R Kundal also raised supplementaries and stressed for a mechanism to be devised for the purpose and take public representatives into confidence while selecting the place for installing hand/ bore pumps. They asked presently who determines/ identifies the place and what is the mechanism to get defunct pumps repaired.
The Minister said whatever happened earlier, he was not answerable to that but in future he will ensure that Village Panchayat members/ elected representatives are taken into confidence for the same and the area is identified by the members of the Technical committee set up for the purpose. He said for repair, the department will keep some funds at the Disposal of Panchayat Committees and department will continue to give technical support till some arrangement is made by the Gram Panchayat Committees. He said as per Govt of India norms there is no mention of any MLA/MLC/MP that pumps will be installed on their recommendations. These are meant for only uncovered areas.
Replying to another question, he said 2890 hand pumps/ bore pumps have been installed during 2012-13 ending January 2013. The pumps are strictly provided as per the prescribed norms on the recommendations of public representatives after ascertaining not covered / partially covered status of the area from the concerned civil territorial divisions.
Even after the reply from the Minister, the NPP member pressed for announcing a House Committee on the issue. He alleged that it was another scandal and it is needed to be investigated. As the chairman rejected his demand, he staged walk-out lodging his protest.
Replying to another question of NC member Master Noor Hussain, the Minister said that he has directed to conduct finance audit of his department from 2002 onwards. He said when he was Minister for Health, he had also undergone special audit of Health Department. The Minister made mention of it even though there was no relevance of the issue with the question asked by the member. He claimed that 332 schemes are operational in Jammu and Samba under NRDWP. The funds are being released as per the approved plan to the HoDs. He said in Jammu 43 departmental water tankers have been engaged besides 20 private tankers Rs 307 lakhs has been spend on private tankers since 2007-08 up to 2010-11. Only five PHE tankers have been engaged in Samba district and four are private. Rs 42 lakh has been spent on these private tankers from 2007-08 to 2011.
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