Shahpur Kandi canal project hangs fire
Dinesh Manhotra/Sanjay Pathak
Tribune News Service
Jammu/Kathua July 2
With work on the ambitious Shahpur Kandi canal project going on at a snail’s pace, hundreds of farmers from the drought-prone Kandi belt of Samba and Kathua districts have been left in the lurch.
After the signing of a fresh agreement with the Punjab Government, the farmers were hopeful that the government would expedite work on the project. However, the authorities at the helm of affairs have failed to change their “casual approach” in dealing with such an important development project.
“Keeping in view its importance, it was expected that the project will be completed in time. However, all our hopes have been dashed to the ground in the last one year after seeing the work progress,” rued Mohan Singh, a farmer from Kharote village in Kathua. He accused successive governments of adopting a casual approach in completing the project.
In 1979, the then governments of J&K and Punjab had signed a bilateral agreement on sharing water from the Ravi. As per the agreement, J&K would get 1,150 cusecs of river water by constructing a canal from Satwain to Basantpur. But the construction work is yet to begin owing to some dispute.
On March 3, 2017, both governments had signed a fresh deal for the completion of the Shahpur Kandi canal after solving all disputes. The J&K government, in the Economic Survey report, had also mentioned that the construction of the canal would change the destiny of hundreds of farmers in Kathua and Samba districts.
Sources said after the signing of the fresh agreement, only the detailed project report (DPR) of the canal had been prepared so far.
For the last 40 years, thousands of hectares of agricultural land in the Kandi belt, one of the poorest regions of the state, has remained deprived of irrigation facilities.
Project timeline
1979: First bilateral agreement was signed between the then Punjab CM, Parkash Singh Badal, and his then J&K counterpart the late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
2008: The Congress-led UPA government declared it as the national project.
2013-14: After years of delay, work on the barrage started. However, it was later stopped by J&K over the relief issue.
2017: Under the PDP-BJP government, Punjab and J&K signed an MoU, but work didn’t take off.
