| Dal, a white elephant for JK? | | Guv surprised over thousands of cores pumped, results naught | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 4: Glaring figures are coming to fore, revealing how under the previous regime's nose crores of rupees were being swindled with brazenness in the much hyped Dal conservation project.
On August 2 this year, as per the government spokesman, Governor N.N. Vohra has held two meetings to discuss the rapidly increasing congestion of the Dal Lake and, among the decisions taken, it was decided that manual de-weeding shall commence without any further delay. The spokesman recalled that a proposal which had been pending before the erstwhile Coalition Government for purchasing and hiring de-weeding, dredging and other equipment for the Dal Lake had been approved by the Governor, in the State Administrative Council, on July 4, 2018. He further stated that consequent to the Governor's direction, 700-800 persons have been engaged by LAWDA for cleaning the Dal Lake since July 21, 2018. However, what is raising eye brows in the fact that when crores of rupees were being pumped into Dal Conservation project, why no results have been achieved so far. 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 this 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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