Panel to plan rehab of families affected by Kishanganga project

Arteev Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 21

After revelation of “exaggeration” of rehabilitation claims of the families affected by the construction of the 330-MW Kishanganga hydroelectric project at Gurez in Bandipora district, the state government has set up a high-level Empowered Committee for the implementation of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Plan for the project.

The 15-member committee will be headed by the Chief Secretary, who will be the panel chairman. It has been tasked with ensuring ‘fair’ and ‘impartial’ implementation of the R&R Plan. The panel will be serviced by the Power Development Department (PDD). An order in this regard was issued here on Wednesday evening.

The administrative secretaries of the nine key departments, Planning and Development Department, Forest, Power Development Department, Finance, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development, Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Public Health Engineering, Irrigation and Flood Control and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, will be the members of the panel.

Besides, the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Managing Director, J&K State Power Development Corporation, Chief Engineer, Electric Maintenance and Rural Electrification Wing, Kashmir, Deputy Commissioner, Bandipora, and a special invitee or expert to be decided by the Chief Secretary will be the other members of the committee.

Official sources said the state government had identified 607 affected families (tentative) of which 185 had been dislocated due to the construction of the Kishanganga hydroelectric project being executed by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation. “Although the compensation has been paid to all affected families, their rehabilitation is still pending,” a source said.

On November 24 last year, it was revealed during the Cabinet Sub-Committee that the district authorities had exaggerated the rehabilitation claims of the families affected by the construction of Kishanganga project from Rs 147 crore to Rs 254 crore.

A senior officer of the PDD, who wished anonymity, said the government had ordered an inquiry into the exaggeration of the rehabilitation claims. “A comprehensive inquiry report will soon be submitted to the government which will fix the responsibility and initiate action under law,” the official said.

Dheeraj Gupta, Commissioner Secretary, PDD, said they were in the process of implementation of the R&R plan for the affected families.

The Kishanganga hydropower project is located on the Kishanganga river, a tributary of the Jhelum in Bandipora district. The project involves transfer of water of the Kishanganga river in the Gurez valley to the Bonar nullah near Bandipora. The sanctioned cost of the project was Rs 3,642.04 crore and the revised cost has touched Rs 5,783.17 crore. The project was expected to be complete by January this year but its deadline has been extended to November 2016.

The work on the construction of the dam for the project was halted by the Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in October 2011 after Pakistan protested that it would effect the flow of the Kishanganga river (called the Neelum river in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir).

In February 2013, the Hague ruled that India could divert a minimum amount of water for power generation.