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| J&K, Punjab may clash on Ravi waters | | |
SANT KUMAR SHARMA
KATHUA, Sept 26: Under the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) on sharing of river waters, India enjoys control over Ravi river while Chenab waters go to Pakistan unhindered. The treaty has been in force since 1960 though bickering about alleged violations is perennial.
Pakistan has often muddied the river waters by raising a stink about alleged violations of the IWT. This has been one reason why irrigation and hydel power potential of rivers flowing through J&K has remained largely untapped.
Dr Farooq Abdullah, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Ghulam Nabi Azad et al, at one time or the other, have spoken about the losses suffered by J&K due to IWT. A couple of years ago, the losses were estimated to be a staggering Rs 6,000 crore.
Another water-sharing treaty that has harmed the state of Jammu and Kashmir immensely, however, has never even become a talking point among the masses so far. The reference here is to the treaty the state signed with the neighbouring Punjab way back in 1955 on sharing of Ravi river waters.
Under the treaty, J&K is entitled to 0.69MAF of supplies from the Ravi river which includes pre-Partition utilization of 0.04 MAF. To make use of its share, the J&K government envisaged the construction of 82-km long Ravi canal from the right bank of the river at Ranjit Sagar dam. The canal was to end at village Chak Salarian in Vijaypur area of Samba district.
The Planning Commission of India gave the go-ahead for the project in 1973. The construction of the Ravi canal started two years later. In 1979, the Punjab government agreed to construct a barrage at Shahpur Kandi, 12 km downstream of Ranjit Sagar dam, for impounding of water for exclusive use of the J&K state.
The barrage would have created a hydel power generation potential of 25 MW in addition to creating irrigation potential for 1,33,000 acres of kandi area falling in Kathua and Samba districts.
According to Directorate of Economics and Statistics of the state government, Punjab has unfairly deprived 72,500 acres of cultivable area in J&K of irrigation waters by delaying the construction of the Shahpur Kandi barrage.
According to conservative estimates of the directorate, the obstinate behaviour of the Punjab government has cost the state a whopping Rs 1,550 crore till date. The directorate, in its data of Economic Survey 2008-09, says that non-construction of Shahpur Kandi barrage by the Punjab government is causing a loss of Rs 248 crore, at the current price level, due to denial of irrigation facilities to 72,500 acres of land.
Incidentally, no state government has, till date, taken up the issue of construction of the Shahpur Kandi barrage with the neighbouring Punjab in an effective manner. All that may change soon as Taj Mohiuddin, the minister in charge of Irrigation and Flood Control, besides Public Health Engineering, has been planning to tap Ravi rivers, without referring the matter to Punjab government.
He has been preparing the ground for utilizing Ravi waters from tail end of Ranjit Sagar dam and take up the issue with the Punjab government. If persuasion fails, J&K will take its share without taking the Punjab government into confidence.
The Punjab government had refused to give waters to Rajasthan and Haryana even though it had signed agreements to do so earlier. Both the states are lower riparian states and could not do force Punjab to honour the agreements.
In case of J&K, the tables can be turned on Punjab as being an upper riparian state, J&K can tap Ravi waters, on its own by drawing its agreed share from the Ranjit Sagar dam. That can lead to a huge ruckus with the Punjab government but don’t rule out that possibility.
In fact, if Mr Taj Mohiuddin is to be believed, a showdown with the Punjab government, if the later fails to see reason, is imminent in the days to come. What gives confidence to Mr Mohiuddin is the fact that being an upper riparian state, J&K enjoys an upper hand vis a vis Punjab, unlike Haryana and Rajasthan.
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