Our politicians are a strange lot. They have fantastic dreams to sell to the people and interestingly the bureaucracy enjoys a good laugh at their behaviour of day dreaming. We don’t know how some politician began nurse the dream of floating a plan according to which the Tawi river front could be remodelled along the Sabarmati river front in Gujarat. It is easy to dream of projects but what are important are the conditions in which the project is to be launched. In the first place we think that the concept of replicating the Sabarmati river model for Tawi is totally misplaced for a variety of reasons. Sabarmati flows on plains of Gujarat where no nullahs bring the rain water and the dirt of the city to the river. Second, Sabarmati is given full importance and made Sabarmati River Front Development Corporation. That speaks of the importance which Gujarat Government has given to the project. Gujarat Government did not depend on funding from different agencies but used its own resources to undertake the project.
As against this Tawi River Front project so lavishly conceived by someone among our visionary politicians has a different setting. In the first place Tawi circumvents the hillock on which old city is perched. It has numerous nullahs that carry the rain water down into the Tawi. Rainwater is not the problem, the real problem is the garbage and refuses that flows down these nullahs into the river polluting the water and creating heaps of reefs that obstruct the flow of water and cause floods. Unless the nullahs are tamed the idea of making river front anything like the Sabarmati River Front is nothing but a wishful thinking. The State authorities have been struggling since many years to tame the nullahs, create a linkage and take the garbage to sewage plant. What the planners of Tawi River Front project did was to make a comprehensive plan and submit it to the Union Ministry of Water Resource for consideration of funds. The plan was returned and rightly so. The Ministry pointed out that the plan has to be split into three components and after doing that the State Government should consider which agency is to be approached for funding. The Ministry did not make any commitment for funding.
Now, the project has been split into three components—-flood management, river conservation including diversion of nullahs carrying sewage of entire Jammu city and River Front Development from beautification point of view. The State Government has now understood that not one but three agencies will have to be tackled if the project is to make any progress. At this stage another day dreaming spree grips the State Government and the policy planners. They are planning to approach various agencies for funding like for flood management component Ministry of Water Resources will be requested for funding under any of its relevant scheme. Similarly, for river conservation component National River Conservation Authority, which functions under Ministry of Environment and Forest, will be requested for funding, and for river front development whose cost has been worked out at Rs 360 crore, the Government has planned to approach Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited, a Government of India Enterprise for sanctioning of loan. Now what is the scenario before us?
First and foremost is that the Ministry of Water Resource has made no commitment whatsoever for funding any component and the State Government finds itself on the horns of dilemma how to handle the Ministry. Secondly, why did the Government make a long effort over last four years of running after Sabarmati River Front Corporation and signing a MoU with them for consultancy and advice on a project for which no source of funding has been identified till date? Now each of the three mentioned components will go to three relevant quarters for financial support. The support does not come on just asking. If any of the agencies is interested, it will depute their expert team to conduct study on spot and then report back to headquarter, which may or may not agree to make commitment for funding. If any one of the three components stands rejected for funding, entire project will be face to face with failure.
The position today about the project is that the Union Ministry of Water Resources has made no commitment for funding. The project is split into three components and each component different funding agencies have to be approached. So far for this process four years have gone by and for the agencies to respond to the request for funding another four or five years will be needed. What can one say about such a planning except that it is putting the cart before the horse. At the same time it is a subject which the Jammu leadership and particularly the law makers should make a note of. How sad that the people of the region are taken for a ride by their own elected representatives.
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