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| Govt’s failure to preserve water body costs exchequer dearly | | How Dal has been draining Govt money for decades | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 9: In spite of the fact that the famed water body Dal Lake has been shrinking with each passing day, the money spent on its preservation has virtually drained the exchequer of the already cash-starved erstwhile state.
In the recent budget, an amount of Rs 273 crores was kept for the preservation of the lake. However, back in the year 2012, Rs 350 crores were kept by the union government for this purpose. On the ground, however, no evident change is visible. Ironically and shocking for many, the depth of Dal lake is now reduced to an average depth of 4.5 feet (1.2 meters) only while 50 years earlier it was more than 45 feet.
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 Rs 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 Rs 2 crore in just one year alone. The state authorities claim that they have spent this amount on the acquisition of land within Dal.
As the illegal constructions see no end around this world-famous lake, the government claims that it has spent Rs 1.5 crores on rehabilitation and resettlement of people living around the lake.
In a similar fashion Rs 2.72 crores have been used over what the government earlier claimed de-weeding and cleaning of channels around the lake. Rs 1.65 crore was shown as an expenditure incurred upon administrative affairs.
Rs 91 lakhs have been used through another scheme in one year called B.S.U.P-JNNURM. Rs 89 lakhs have been spent on sewerage systems and two lakh on rehabilitation.
Rs 133.57 lakhs have been spent under the Urban Local grant in the year 2014 by the state authorities. Rs 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. |
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