Minister for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Sham Lal Choudhary today informed the House that the Centre has enhanced the fund allocation for J&K for the current year as against the previous year under National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP). He, said there has been however a drastic cut in fund allocation under NRDWP over the years.“During the year 2015-16, the State Government was allocated Rs 199.40 crore as against preceding year's allocation of Rs 474 crore by the Central Government under NRDWP. The allocation for the current financial year has been enhanced to Rs 227.50 crore along with State share to the tune of Rs 54.25 crore against Rs. 6.50 during 2015-16,” the Minister informed the house.The Minister was responding to a Question by Vikar Rasool Wani, seeking details of steps taken by the government to ensure timely completion of Water Supply scheme following 70 percent cut in funds by the central government.Meanwhile, the Minister said that some traditional water resources have been affected due to construction of Railways and four lane tunnels in district Reasi and Ramban. As compensation, Rs 2.93 crore have been received from the Railways authorities for district Reasi. For district Ramban, a DPR amounting to Rs. 4.56 crore has been submitted to the concerned construction companies through District Development Commissioner, Ramban for tapping alternate source of water supply schemes affected by the construction activities.
The funds are awaited in this behalf, said the Minister.Giving area-wise details of damages caused to the water supply schemes and steps taken to ensure adequate water supply to the affected areas, the Minister said that Bankoot, Nowgam, Thether, Chapnari/Amkoot Thachi, Khari, Sumber and Manjoose areas have been affected due to the railway construction activities. He said the government has submitted the DPR to the concerned agencies for providing funds and these would be utilized for tapping alternate/additional water sources.Responding to the query about the damage caused to various Nullahs in Banihal Constituency due to flash floods and steps for their restoration, the Minister said that heavy devastation was caused in some Nullahs including Bislasi, Bankote, Gund, Duligam due to floods in 2014 and temporary restoration works were undertaken on the same. However, flood protection works of various Nullahs have been incorporated in 2 projects involving an estimated cost of Rs.21.66 lakh, which have been submitted to the Central Water Commission for approval under FMP, the Minister added.Regarding the construction of Filtration Plant in Banihal Constituency, the Minister said that under LIC Loan Assistance, two Slow Sand Filtration Plants of 5000 GPH capacity have been tendered and allotted to the contractors. The work on these projects shall start soon, said the Minister.Mr Shah Mohammad Tantray, Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar, Mian Altaf Ahmed and Er Sheikh Abdul Rashid raised the supplementary questions and drew the attention of the Minister towards the issues related to the PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control sectors in their respective areas. They sought adequate funding to upgrade the existing infrastructure and for speedy completion of on-going schemes.