The Government of India is allegedly sitting over clearance to Rs 401-crore flood management project for flood-prone Kashmir.
A senior official said though the Union Water Resource Ministry has “cleared” the project, release of funds is awaited.
He said the issue was taken up by State Government authorities with Secretary Department of Expenditures in the Union Finance Ministry during his visit to Kashmir last month.
“That time the central government official gave us the commitment of ensuring release of funds for the project,” said the official.
The Union Secretary had chaired a high-level meeting here to assess developmental needs of J&K in the wake of devastating deluge that hit Kashmir in September 2014.
Chief Engineer Flood Control Department Kashmir, JavedJaffer said the Union Water Resource Ministry has cleared the “project”.
However he said the State would get the funds after the project is approved by the newly-set up NITI Aayog.
“We are hopeful of receiving funding in coming few months,” said the Chief Engineer.
The project involves dredging of river Jhelum to increase its carrying capacity and land acquisition to widen river’s flood spill channel.
The proposal was already approved by Central Water Commission (CWC) but was pending for want of clearance from Union Water Resource Ministry’s Technical Approval Committee.
The threat of flood has been looming large over the Valley post September-2014 deluge which resulted in massive siltation of Jhelum and its spill channel and other water bodies in Kashmir.
Last month, Kashmir, which is highly vulnerable to the floods, was on the brink of another flood after it received just 15 hour rainfall.
In March this year, the State Government sounded flood alert on two occasions after water level in Jhelum increased beyond danger levels.
A senior official in the Kashmir Flood Control Department said the cumulative carrying capacity of Jhelum and its flood spill channel has gone down to around 40000 cusecs which is resulting in flood threat after a rainfall of over 12 hours.
“The idea is to increase their carrying capacity under the project in the pipeline,” said the official.
Kashmir has a long history of floods and as per official records the Valley has been hit by deluges at least 10 times since 1905.
The official however said the Rs 401 crores project was not adequate to avert future flood threats.
“The massive encroachment of water bodies including Jhelum, conversion of marshy land into residential colonies has led to decrease in water holding capacity and that is the reason for frequent flood threats being faced in Kashmir,” he said.
He said the government would require framing a long term flood management policy to make Kashmir safe for times to come.
The State Government has separately also taken up mega flood management project of Rs 22000 crore for Kashmir with New Delhi.
It involves construction of a new flood spill channel from Sangam in Anantnag (Islamabad) up to Wullar Lake in Bandipora apart from other proposed measures.
However New Delhi has asked State to submit a fresh Detailed Project Report of the mega plan.
