Minister for Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Lal Choudhary today said that work of Modernization of Kathua Canal under Phase-I has been completed with a potential to irrigate 12560.00 hectares of land.Replying to a question by Rajiv Jasrotia, the Minister said the project was taken up under AIBP and completed at a cost of Rs.15.68 crore. He also informed that the project for modernization of Kathua Canal Phase-II, at an estimated cost of Rs 24.70 crore, is under consideration for sponsorship under NABARD. The Minister also informed the house that Rs 64.10 crore project has been framed for augmentation and improvement of water supply in Kandi BeltThe Minister said that the Water supply Schemes under NRDWP could not be completed in Kathua constituency within time frame due to the overall cut in Central Share allocations.Responding to other issues, Sham Choudhary said that the project report for protection work on Sahar Khad tributaries from Bhara to Saidpur village in Kathua district has been submitted for an amount of Rs 76.79 crore under FMP & the approval is pending with GoI. He further informed that the Project report for construction of earthen embankment & allied works on L/S of Ujh River from Mai Chak to Nangal village for an amount of Rs 75.36 crore under FMP is also pending with the GOI.The Minister also provided scheme-wise detail of physical and financial achievements ending year 2016 in Kathua constituency.
Veeri assures equitable distribution of SHLsMinister for Public Works and Parliamentary Affairs Abdul Rehman Veeri today assured the Legislative Assembly that Solar Home Lights (SHL) would be equitably provided to all the districts for further distribution to eligible households and areas. Intervening during question hour, while responding to the issue raised by MLA, G M Saroori, the Minister assured the house that Government will look into the complaints of neglect of a particular area or constituency. Replying to the main question of Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, Minister of State for Housing & Urban Development Social Welfare, Health & Medical Education Asiea Naqash said a proposal for providing solar home lights (SHLs) and Solar Street Lights (SSLs) in all the districts of J&K has been submitted to the Union Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under Prime Minister's Development Package. She also informed that 7000 and 5000 SHLs have been proposed for Doda and Kishtwar districts respectively, while 1212 SSLs each are also proposed for these districts.However, she said there was no specific proposal for the provision of solar lights to all snow bound areas of Doda and Kishtwar districts.Meanwhile, the Minister also said that so far 14880 solar home lights were distributed in Kishtwar against the target of 19000, 2067 were provided in Inderwal constituency against the target of 2499.Similarly, 216 Solar Streetlights were provided for Kishtwar constituency against the target of 657.The supplementary questions were raised by Nawang Rigzin Jora, Shakti Parihar, Altaf Ahmed Kaloo, Abdul Rahim Rather and Pawan Gupta demanding the solar lights for the far flung areas of their respective constituencies.