NEW DELHI, March 24 : In his
first meeting with Bhagwant Mann after the latter took over as Chief Minister
of Punjab, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh today updated Mann about the
salient features of the national Shahpur-Kandi project which will cater to the
bordering districts of Kathua and Samba in Jammu & Kashmir and Pathankot
and Gurdaspur in Punjab. During the meeting lasting over half an hour, the two
leaders also discussed several other issues of mutual interest between J&K
and Punjab.
Dr Jitendra Singh informed the
Punjab CM that the first phase of the project is likely to be launched before
the end of this year and it will be a game-changer for J&K and Punjab. He
expressed confidence that the project, which was stalled for four decades, will
see the light of the day with Bhagwant Mann as the Chief Minister, whom he had
closely known as a colleague in the 16th and the 17th Lok Sabha and
incidentally when he and Mann got elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time,
both of them did not have a government accommodation and they were both lodged
in the same hotel.
Bhagwant Mann expressed his
desire to undertake a visit to Shahpur-Kandi Project accompanied by Dr Jitendra
Singh. He said, this will help provide a first hand experience and also an
opportunity to plan further roadmap of cooperation for the times to come.
Wishing Bhagwant Mann a
fruitful and productive tenure as Chief Minister of an important State like
Punjab, Dr Jitendra Singh said, there are many things which are common between
J&K and Punjab and one of these is river Ravi which had been granted to
India under the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 between India and Pakistan. He said,
it was either misplaced priorities or motivated political considerations
because of which the Shahpur-Kandi project did not take off ever since it was
initiated in the 1970s. It was only after the personal intervention of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi that a fresh draft paper was prepared and the project
was launched with a formal announcement by PM Modi during his visit to Jammu in
early 2019.
Once this game-changer project
is fully functional, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, the border districts of Kathua
and Samba in J&K and districts Pathankot and Gurdaspur in Punjab will be
the main beneficiaries with sufficient water for irrigation. The dry or less
irrigated zone, which was traditionally referred to as “Kandi” belt, will no
longer be known as “Kandi” and the future generation will not even be aware of
this expression.
The Shahpur-Kandi Dam has the potential of irrigating 32173 hectares which will give a huge fillip to the socio-economic transformation. (Agencies)
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