Will change fortunes of Kandi belt: Dr Jitendra
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 17: Pending for last nearly four decades, the State Administrative Council (SAC) today cleared Ujh multi-purpose project, which will benefit Kathua and Samba districts of Jammu region immensely through power and irrigation facilities, and will be completed at the cost of Rs 4750 crore.
Ujh multi-purpose project is among three projects, for which foundation stone is likely to be laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Jammu and Kashmir after August 15.
Successive State Governments in Jammu and Kashmir including PDP-led previous Government had been intentionally delaying clearance of this project as it would have benefitted the people of Kathua and Samba districts of Jammu region with power and water supply and converted Kandi belt into irrigated land.
The SAC headed by Governor NN Vohra and attended by his all three Advisors-BB Vyas, K Vijay Kumar and Khurshid Ganai and Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, cleared Ujh multi-purpose project for execution.
Rs 4750 crore worth project will benefit 31,380 hectares of land in Kathua and parts of Samba district and give 196 mw of additional power to Jammu and Kashmir. The Kandi belt of Kathua and Samba will become irrigated land with the construction of canal from Ujh.
The project was pending for last nearly four decades. The previous Governments showed no interest and continued to delay the project intentionally as it would have given benefits to the parts of Jammu region only. To deliberately delay the project, the previous Governments had asked Punjab to pay Rs 6000 crore worth compensation to J&K for using water for four decades, a demand rejected by the Punjab Government repeatedly.
However, Union Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Dr Jitendra Singh took up the matter with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who directed his Principal Secretary, Nipender Mishra to call Chief Secretaries of both Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab States and representative of Central Water Commission (CWC) and sort out the issue. After series of meetings, J&K and Punjab signed an agreement on power and water in which Punjab also agreed to pay its share.
Lauding the Governor and his administration for clearing Ujh multi-purpose project in today’s SAC meeting, Dr Jitendra Singh said it would benefit the people of Kathua and Samba districts a lot in terms of power and water. The State would also be benefited as a whole with 196 mw additional power from the project, he pointed out and said the project has the potential of changing fortunes of the people of Kathua district and parts of Samba district.
An official handout said in the revised DPR, the height of the reservoir in the Dam has been reduced, as a result of which the area under submergence has reduced from 41 sq km to 34.5 sq km i.e. reduction of about 7 sq km, with the likely population to be affected by submergence coming down by about 3000 people i.e from 11498 to 8684 souls.
The Government of India will be funding the project in the ratio of 90:10. The State will provide Rs. 475 crores as its share. The Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) plan for the Project Affected Families (PAFs) will be on the lines of the Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project.
The Ujh Multipurpose Project has been a long pending demand of the people of the State and the completion of this Project within a period of three years will ensure assured irrigation to a vast area of 31,380 hectares, thereby, changing the agricultural as also the power scenario in the region. With this project, the socio-economic development of the region will receive a big boost.
Under the project, J&K had envisaged constructing a canal, to be built with a carrying capacity of 1150 cusecs. On completion, it is expected to change the fortunes of thousands of farmers in the Kandi belt (rainfed areas) in Kathua and Samba districts. Punjab will share with J&K 20 per cent of the total power generated at Thein Dam at the mutually agreed rate of Rs 3.50 per unit.
Over 1.5 lakh acres in the Kandi area, upstream and downstream along the Jammu-Pathankot national highway in Samba and Kathua districts will get irrigation facility on the implementation of the agreement.
The farmers of the Kandi belts are the worst sufferers due to non-availability of irrigation facilities.
Sources said the agreement signed between Jammu and Punjab representatives in the presence of Central Water Commission office bearers had to be ratified by the State Cabinet, which was not done. However, in less than a month of Governor’s rule, the SAC, which has powers of the Cabinet, cleared the project for execution.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir anytime after August 15 for laying foundation of three major projects as the Union Home Ministry is understood to have asked the State Government to clear all hurdles in the projects before the high-profile visit.
BJP insiders told the Excelsior that the Prime Minister could visit Jammu and Kashmir after August 15 for laying foundation stones of much awaited All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Vijaypur in Samba district of Jammu and Awantipora in Pulwama district of Kashmir, Ujh multi-purpose project and Jammu-Akhnoor National Highway, which will be later extended up to Poonch via Sunderbani, Nowshera and Rajouri.
Sources said the Union Home Ministry is reported to have asked the State Government to clear hurdles in laying foundation stone for two AIIMS and Ujh multi-purpose project while the bottlenecks in Jammu-Akhnoor highway have already been cleared and the project was ready to take off. The Ujh multi-purpose project was cleared by the SAC today.
For AIIMS project in Jammu, the administration is engaged in negotiations with the Gujjars for eviction of land and it was confident of a solution very soon. For AIIMS Awantipora in Kashmir, majority of formalities have already been completed.
“Exact date for the visit of the Prime Minister will be finalized once formalities for laying foundation of AIIMS Vijaypur/Awantipora are completed as two other projects Ujh and Jammu-Akhnoor highway were now ready for foundation laying.,” sources said.
Modi had visited all three regions of the State including Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh on May 19 during which he had laid foundation of Zojila tunnel, Ring Roads for Jammu and Srinagar and inaugurated Kishenganga hydro-electric project and Tarakota Marg on Mata Vaishno Devi ji shrine.
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