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| Will new committee make skeletons tumble out of closets? | | Govt constitutes panel for Dal Preservation | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Nov 13: As the government has accorded sanction to the constitution of Committee to finalize the draft of the notification for declaring Dal Lake and its surrounding areas as Eco-Sensitive Zone, the question is arising whether it will expose the past governments for making the famed water body a money minting machine.
On November 7, this year vide government order number 09 of JK(GAD) of 2019, the the commute was constituted to take measures aimed at preserving Dal Lake without delay.
As per the officials within the administration, the committee has been tasked to submit the detailed report within a period of one month and it is being speculated that it may also expose the lapses and non- seriousness done by the previous governments of Jammu and Kashmir. "The political parties in power had reservations over removing the illegal encroachments around the Dal and take the involved official machinery to the task. However, at present, the scenario will be completely different. There will be no consideration for the vote bank politics in any manner," says the official.
According to the official documents in possession of the Early Times, under various state and centrally sponsored schemes, thousands of crores of rupees have been pumped into the lake's protection.
MH 3435, under Central Sector scheme Rs 191 lakhs have been spent on Dal. The breakup of the expenditure informs that 34 lakhs have been spent on sewerage treatment works while as 115 lakhs on catchment management works. Further Rs 27 lakh, the authorities claim to have spent on the infrastructure.
Under another scheme under the umbrella of the state sector called MH4217 and the amount spent in 2014 on the protection of Dal by this scheme was 578 lakhs.
Through Prime Minister's reconstruction program called PMRP, the state government claims to have spent two crore rupees in just one year alone. The state authorities claim that they have spent this amount on acquisition of land within Dal.
As the illegal constructions see no end around this world famous lake, the government claims that it has spent 1.5 crores on rehabilitation and resettlement of people living around the lake.
In a similar fashion 2.72 crores have been used over what the government earlier claimed de-weeding and cleaning of channels around the lake. 1.65 crore was shown as an expenditure incurred upon administrative affairs.
91 lakhs have been used through another scheme in one year called B.S.U.P-JNNURM. 89 lakhs have been spent on sewerage system and two lakh on rehabilitation.
133.57 lakhs have been spent under Urban Local grant in the year 2014 by the state authorities. 1.32 crores were given away as the salaries for the staff while as the remaining amount was shown as the expenditure upon the telephone bills of babus.
Ironically and shocking for many, the depth of Dal lake is now reduced to an average depth of 4.5 feet (1.2 metres) only while as 50 years earlier it was more than 45 feet. |
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