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| J&K pays Rs 1,550 cr for Punjab’s prosperity | | |
SANT KUMAR SHARMA
LAKHANPUR, September 27, 2009:
The mighty Ravi flows next to the gateway of Jammu & Kashmir - the small town of Lakhanpur - and forms a natural boundary with the neighbouring Punjab. But there is very little water in the stream after the Madhopur bridge as the river waters have been turned through canals into Punjab.
After the Madhopur bridge, the river turns right but its water has been turned left. The riverbed is virtually dry, almost the entire flow having been diverted to Punjab. As you cross the bridge from Madhopur into J&K, look up out of your vehicle towards north-east and you see a lake some distance away.
The lake is the result of impounding of Ravi waters through a barrage. This barrage, as originally envisaged, was to be a formidable structure, 12 km downstream of Ranjit Sagar dam, at Shahpur Kandi. If completed, it would take waters into J&K and irrigate thouands of acres of land.
The Punjab government has virtually done nothing to construct the barrage and thus deprived J&K of its just and fair share of river waters. It diverted water to its fields on the left bank without meeting its obligations towards the farmers on the right bank.
The non-construction of Shahpur Kandi barrage has caused a loss of Rs 1,550 crore to a poor state like J&K. Till date. Some of the prosperity of the Punjab farmers can thus be attributed to the denial of water to J&K farmers.
In fact, the barrage could have been completed almost two decades ago in 1991-92. If only the Punjab government had wanted to do so and successive governments in J&K followed through.
Not only this, the non-construction of the barrage is also causing a recurring loss of Rs 248 crore per annum at current prices. This loss is being caused due to non-availability of irrigation facilities to thousands of acres of land.
Senior engineers, some retired, alleged that governments in J&K failed to pursue the matter with the Punjab government in a forceful manner as the politics of the state is always Kashmir-centric. Since the construction of the Shahpur Kandi barrage would have benefited farmers in the Jammu region, successive chief ministers failed to force the Punjab government to honour its commitments, they opined.
To further strengthen their arguments, they pointed out that the irrigation and flood control department has mostly remained with senior Kashmiri politicians. In this connection, they pointed out that during the last decade, the department was headed by Qazi Afzal and Dilawar Mir.
Even during Dr Farooq Abdullah’s successive tenures, beginning from September 1982 to October 2002, the department was never assigned to a leader from the Jammu region. This is one reason why irrigation in the Jammu region was never taken seriously by them, the engineers said.
Taj Mohiuddin, the minister in charge of Irrigation and Flood Control, besides Public Health Engineering, wants to depart from the past practices. He wants to change the course of the river. Literally, to irrigate 1.33 lakh acres of land in J&K with Ravi waters, as originally planned.
Mohiuddin was elected as MLA in 2002 and 2008, from Uri constituency in Baramulla district of Kashmir. However, unlike some of his predecessors, he believes in treating the whole of the state as his own and doesn’t play the politics of Jammu versus Kashmir, sources close to the minister said.
The Congress, which is an alliance partner in the National Conference-led government, draws strength from the Jammu region. Most of its legislators hail from Jammu and any measures that will benefit the people of the region will help consolidate its hold further, they pointed out.
Collectively, Kathua (5), Samba (2) and Jammu (11) districts elect 18 MLAs. From these constituencies, only one National Conference legislator was elected this time i.e. Surjit Singh Slathia from Vijaypur. He too will have to put his weight behind Taj Mohiuddin in his cause of putting pressure on the Punjab government to construct the Shahpur Kandi barrage. The reason is simple. Large parts of his own constituency will benefit when the barrage is constructed, the sources said.
In the days to come, the Chief Minister, Mr Omar Abdullah, will have to lead from the front for lobbying with the Centre to accelerate work on getting Ravi waters from Punjab. That definitely looks like a more onerous task than getting an additional Central University (CU) for the state, in lieu of an Indian Institute of Management (IIM).
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