Vital agreement documents between state and NHPC missing

‘NHPC not paying any royalty to JK out of its projects’
Govt admits in House: ‘Record of DulHasti power project execution missing’

Amid demands for return of power projects from the National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC), the Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday admitted on floor of the Legislative Council that documents regarding execution agreement of DulHasti power project by the state government with the NHPC are “untraceable” and “misplacement of records appears to be deliberate.”

Replying to a question by MLC Firdous Tak who had sought details of agreement for execution of DulHasti power project by the state government with NHPC, the state government in a written reply states that “as recorded by the Task Force (constituted by the government ) in its report, the relevant records were found missing from all the concerned offices i.e. Power Development Department, General Administration Department and the Governor’s Secretariat.”
“The task force could fix the responsibility for the disappearance of the record. It recorded, however that the misplacement of the record pertaining to the referent cabinet decision was reported first in 1984, but the record could not be traced despite repeated searches,” it reads.
“The task force concluded that the cabinet decision was untraceable and that there was not any possibility of its retrieval. Though the task force observed that the misplacement of the records appeared to be deliberate act, it couldn’t fix responsibility for its misplacement as the records were around four decades old and no handing over/taking over of the records had taken place,” the government reply adds.
Pertinently, the revelation has come at a time when the J&K government is repeatedly saying that it was negotiating with New Delhi on return of two power projects—390 MW DulHasti and 480 MW Uri I—from NHPC to the State.
Further, the state government admits that presently, there is no agreement or MOU available with the state government on terms and conditions under which DulHasti power project was executed by NHPC.
“In 2011, a cabinet sub-committee was constituted vide government order no 638-GAD of 2011 dated 1-6-2011, to look into various issues arising from the terms and conditions of entrustment of the Hydroelectric projects to the NHPC in the state,” the reply reads. “The committee too could not find any agreement or MOU under which Dulhasti Hydroelectric project was entrusted to NHPC for execution, when the report of the cabinet, sub-committee was submitted to the cabinet,” it adds.
“The most important document which will determine financial implication and responsibilities of various stakeholders i.e. state government, central government and NHPC is the MOU, however as per report of the sub-committee the relevant agreement is not available on the record.”
“The sub-committee pointed out that misplacement of record pertaining to an important cabinet decision is a serious matter. It recommended that a task force of senior officers of the state be constituted to look into circumstances leading to the misplacement of these records and to fix responsibility for lapses.”
The government reply reveals that according a task force under chairmanship of Administrative Secretary General Administration department with three additional secretaries (that of Power Development Department, General Administration Department, and Governor’s Secretariat) was formed vide G.O No. 554-GAD of 2012 dated 22-5-2012.
Further the reply reveals that total land measuring 205.74 hectare has been acquired by NHPC for Dulhasti Power Station in district Kishtwar.
To another question whether NHPC is paying 12 percent of royalty out of the profits on its projects, to Jammu and Kashmir government, the reply reads that “NHPC doesn’t pay any royalty out of its project to JK”.
“However, since commercial operation of Dulhasti power station on 07.04.2007 NHPC is providing 12 percent free power royalty from Dulhasti power station to JK government per allocation order issued by Government of India. Accordingly, since April 2007, DulHasti Power station has provided 2354.02 Million units of electricity equivalent to Rs 1197 crore in value to JK government upto March 31, 2016,” it reads.