J&K entitled to agreed water share: Punjab
NEW DELHI: Chief Secretary Iqbal Khandey Tuesday held a meeting here with his Punjab counterpart, Rakesh Singh and discussed the issues pertaining to the Thein Dam and the proposed Shahpur, Kandi Project. Detailed deliberations were held regarding the supply of due share of water to J&K from river Ravi as per the agreement.
Khanday raised several concerns and apprehensions with respect to the supply of entitled share of water to J&K and asked the Punjab Government to address the issues arising out of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act 2004.
It was noted that the said Act does not apply to J&K being the riparian State. The Chief Secretary Punjab also reiterated that it does not abrogate the agreement which Punjab has made with the riparian States like J&K and Himachal Pradesh, adding that J&K is entitled to draw its due share of Ravi water.
The meeting decided that Punjab Government as a confidence building measure would ensure that the irrigation requirement during the coming Kharief and Rabi seasons as per the Agreement is supplied to the State from river Ravi. It was also decided that the Punjab Government would nominate a Nodal officer who would ensure release of waters from the Thein Dam for the Basantpur and Lakhanpur lift irrigation stations, downstream as per the requisition by the Chief Engineer Ravi Tawi irrigation J&K. The Nodal officer would tie-up with the Thein Dam Power Project Authorities in this regard.
Regarding the Shahpur Kandi Barrage Project, it was decided that the officials from both the Governments would scrutiny and do the technical appraisal of the design to ascertain the viability of the exiting designs and present a report in this regard to their respective Governments by June this year.
The meeting also discussed other issues including evacuation of the 20% power share from the Thein Dam project.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Irrigation Department Punjab, Mr. Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary, finance Department Punjab, Mr. D. P Reddy, Secretary Power Punjab, Mr. Anirudh Tewari, Commissioner Secretary, PHE, Irrigation and FC, J&K, Dr. Pawan Kotwal, CMD, PSPCL, Mr. K.D Chudhari, Director Generation, PSPCL Mr. G.S Chhabra, Chief Engineer SPKD, Mr. Harinder Singh, Chief engineer, Ravi Tawi Irrigation J&K, Mr. Varinder Badyal, Chief Engineer, RSDC, Mr. S.K Nabh, and other senior officers.
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