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| Taj's dream project on Ravi Canal 'shelved' after 'hot debate' | | Cabinet for seeking Attorney General's legal opinion | | Saroj Razdan
Jammu, Dec 17: In what can be seen as jolt to PHE and Irrigation Minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din's dream project of constructing Ravi Tawi Irrigation Canal, the State Cabinet today deferred its decision and were unanimous in referring the matter to Attorney General for seeking his legal opinion before Government grants approval for the project. After a threadbare discussion in the Cabinet which also witnessed heated arguments between Taj and Finance Minister AR Rather, the Cabinet finally remained unanimous that the matter is shelved till legal opinion comes on the issue on account of which the two departments were at loggerheads for over two years now.
Sources said the Finance Minister explained his position in a detailed manner as to why he had been raising queries and not giving clearance to the construction of the project. After putting forth certain hard facts in front of the Cabinet during the meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, sources said the Finance Minister contended it was against propriety to go ahead with the construction of the canal as the bigger issue of Punjab Government having exonerated itself from all its bindings on all water agreements was still pending before the Supreme Court.
It is pertinent to mention here that soon after Punjab Government passed an Act in 2004 that enabled it to abolish water agreements with all States including J&K, the matter was referred to President as to know what step the Punjab Government had taken was right or not, the same having affected the interests of all other States with whom it had entered into agreements in the past. J&K had entered into water agreement with Punjab way back in 1979. However, Punjab Government had not honored its commitments including the one on construction of Shapur Kandi Barrage dam. As for the matter having been referred to President, the latter had sent it to SC for its Advisory opinion.
Sources said while Taj Mohi-ud-Din, who has been accusing Finance Minister of creating hurdles in the project and even saying that he (Finance Minister) was behaving more than a Chief Minister, by not agreeing to what his Ministry was contending by way of concurrence, today presented before the Cabinet a document drafted by a lawyer in order to substantiate that what his Ministry was seeking was a rightful step and in the interests of the people of State. However, this was dismissed by the Finance Minister, sources said , adding that the latter it could not challenge the fact that matter is still pending before SC and it also amounted to making Presidential reference ineffective, which was against the propriety. Sources said after thorough discussion in the meeting, the matter was finally sought to be deferred by the Cabinet.
It is pertinent to mention here that the matter was placed on agenda today as PHE Minister had sought this to be approved with Chief Minister's intervention directly by the Cabinet. |
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