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| In contravention to its own decision, Govt spends water usage charges on non-plan expenditure | | | Bashir Assad
Jammu, Nov15: In what can be termed as an interesting but shocking revelation, the government of Jammu and Kashmir has utilized the water usage charges realized from NHPC on non-plan expenditure in contravention to its own policy and the cabinet decision which make it abundantly clear that the charges realized from users shall be utilized for harnessing state's water resources and buying back the power projects from the central power giant.
Authoritative government sources told Early Times that the Finance Department has utilized about Rs 723 crores realized from NHPC as water usage charges under J&K Water Resources (Management and Regulation) Act on non-plan expenditure months before the ordinance amending the section 185 of the Act was cleared by the Raj Bhavan.
Pertinently, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is on record to have said publicly at many occasions that the water usages charges being realized from NHPC and other users shall be used exclusively for improving the power scenario in the state especially in harnessing the water resources. Not only this, the Chief Minister well ahead of approving the draft amendment in the Cabinet had committed on the floor of the house that the water usage charges shall be utilized for improving power scenario in the state. However, Early Times learnt from reliable sources that about Rs.723 crores realized from NHPC have been utilized to meet the non-plan expenditure .
Interestingly, Jammu and Kashmir High Court on March 29, 2012 permitted the State Government to utilize the money collected from NHPC as water usage charges after which the state government created a separate account in Jammu and Kashmir Bank for water usage charges. Soon the cabinet approved the draft ordinance seeking amendment to section 185 of the J&K Water Resources (Management and Regulation) Act, 2010 for creating a separate "fund" under a proper account head for developing new power projects from water usage charges levied against different energy generating companies including NHPC for harnessing water resources of the state.
Though the Ordinance was issued in August 2012 after Governor N N Vohra gave his assent to the same on August 14 but the Finance Department had till then utilized about Rs 723 crores for other purposes.
The Department, however, justifies its action saying the water usage charges were utilized before the ordinance was issued.
"Of course, the department has utilized the funds realized from the users for welfare of the state but it was abandoned immediately as the said ordinance became operational", a senior official in the Finance Department told Early Times.
"The ordinance has empowered Finance Department to constitute a "fund" under a proper account number in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank in which amount realized as water usage charges shall be deposited and the same has been done without any delay in August this year when the Ordinance was issued by the government", the official said. He said that the government (Finance Department) was authorized by the High Court in March this year to utilize the funds which we did, however, when ordinance was issued in August a separate fund was created under proper account without any delay.
However, sources within Irrigation department told Early Times that the department will ask for refund of the spent funds because these funds are to be spent on harnessing water resources.
It may be recalled that the State government expects to get Rs 900 crore or more as water usage charges from NHPC this year.
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