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| Water supply schemes worth crores grounded in Kishtwar | | | Asif Iqbal Naik
Early Times Report
KISHTWAR, Mar 20: In an open loot and misuse of government exchequer, the hydraulic division Kishtwar has spent Rs. 1.85 Crore in the name of repair/augmentation of HRT lift water supply scheme while Rs. 315183 were spent on permanent restoration of Gravity Main of Naigard , Lalha Water Supply Kishtwar town and WSS Palmar, but doubts have been raised on utilization of these funds as Kishtwar town and its vicinity is continuously facing the water crises on daily bases.
As per the official documents available with "Early Times", out of allotted budget of Rs. 4.47 lacs under Demand No. 23-PHE, H.O.D-01-CE PHE Jammu, Group Head -0011 (State Sector Capex Budget), Sub Head -1002 PHE department Jammu, the Hydraulic Division Kishtwar spent Rs.315183 as progress expenditure for permanent restoration of Gravity Main of Naigard , Lalha Water Supply Kishtwar town and WSS Palmar.
Similarly under same head the Hydraulic Division Kishtwar spent Rs. 99 lacs on account of augmentation of 3 stage lift water Supply scheme for abandoned HRT of Dul Hasti Project of Kishtwar Town for the session ending 3/2017 and another Rs. 86.07 lacs were also spent on the same during the same period and thus total an amount of Rs. 1.85 Crore were spent on the prestigious water supply scheme last year. Beside this an amount worth lacs of rupees had been withdrawn on account of tanker services which itself is a mass scale nexus in the department wherein the officer concern has diverted the water tax collection money for the payments made to private tanker owners.
Meanwhile despite spending funds worth crores of rupees on various water-supply schemes, the problem of water shortage faced by the people in Kishtwar District got worsened by each passing day.
The sources told the "Early Times" that many water supply schemes worth crores of rupees though were shown functional in papers and the full payments have been withdrawn by the officials of the department in last 10-15 years, but many among those schemes has never been implemented on ground which according to the sources required to be verified and probed by an independent agencies.
As per the analysis, the main cause of water crisis in Kishtwar district is on account of illegal water connection given to some influential persons out of main gravity supply, beside the officials of PHE department also provide water connection illegally out of 8 inch diameter Naigard water supply for commercial use to some blue eyed persons, thus worsened the situation. Naigard water supply scheme is the main source of water supply for Kishtwar town and its suburbs since many water resources in and around Kishtwar town dried up due to boring of tunnel for 390 MW Dool-Hasti power project. One HRT water lift supply scheme dedicated by NHPC to Kishtwar town also fails to tick off and developed a technical snag many a times while other HRT schemes of PHE department is no different to it.
It was alleged that the machinery procured by the NHPC with the consultation of PHE department and utilized for the said scheme is said to be off sub standard and similar is the case with other water lift schemes functional in the District.
In addition department also press water tankers into service to provide water to the inhabitants of Kishtwar which according to insiders also functions only in papers and fuel charges and other expenses have regularly been withdrawn on account of water supply and same could be verified from the logbooks of those water tankers. If the insiders are to be believed the payments withdrawn on account of water tanker charges runs into several lacs without fulfilling any purpose.
Now the people of Kishtwar are eyeing on under construction multi crore Naigard water supply scheme for which previous government of Jammu and Kashmir had already released about Rs.55 Crore, but this scheme too falls prey to corruption by means of carriage scandal as well as road construction scandal. Despite the fact that Naigard Scheme falls prey to official corruption, people are hopeful that the government will show its keen interest in executing this prestigious water project at ground level, otherwise there is possibility that this water supply scheme will too go into the kitty of officials-contractors nexus. |
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