Canal project goes down the drain

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 27

The Haryana Cabinet today approved a proposal of the Irrigation and Water Resources Department to denotify 1,019 acres of land acquired for the construction of Dadupur-Nalvi irrigation scheme.

The scheme was initiated in 1985 and the project was approved by the government for Rs 13.00 crore for irrigation and recharging of groundwater in Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Ambala districts. For implementing the scheme, 190.67 acres of land was acquired during 1987-90. But the scheme could not be taken up further. In October 2005, the project was again approved by the government for Rs 267.27 crore.

In its annual report of 2011-2012, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India raised the observation regarding this scheme, that the reply of the department regarding usefulness of the project was not convincing as the primary objective of the project of providing canal irrigation could not be fulfilled.

The land owners whose land was acquired from 2005 onwards were not satisfied with the award of lower courts and filed RFAs in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In May last year, the High Court awarded compensation at Rs 116.83 lakh per acre plus incidental charges.

Since enhancement for only 167.27 acres had been given as Rs 566.49 crore by the High Court, the government did not find the scheme feasible and hence decided to abandon the scheme and denotify the acquired land.