Skip to main content

Crores wasted on unplanned irrigation schemes

Nitesh Sangral
JAMMU, July 9: The lift irrigation schemes that irrigate 22.83 thousand hectare of cultivable land in the state have been executed in an unplanned manner and are lingering on for more than 20 years in many cases.

The irrigation potential created has not been fully utilised, adversely affecting the contribution of the lift irrigation schemes.

The construction work and maintenance of these schemes is vested with the state Irrigation and Flood Control Department.

As per official records, the schemes irrigate 7 per cent of the cultivable land in the state. Scrutiny revealed that the department concerned did not frame any perspective plan with regard to the construction work under these schemes.

Various schemes were taken up without setting priorities and as a result a number of schemes remained incomplete despite being under construction for the past between 20 and 26 years.

For providing irrigation facilities to 32 villages with a command cultivable area of 12,000 acres, the executive engineer, Irrigation Department, Akhnoor, had incurred (March 2004) an expenditure of Rs 44.17 lakh on survey work for the construction of the lift irrigation scheme at Ambran and this included Rs 38 lakh paid (June 2003) to a firm, WAPCOS, for the preparation of a detailed project report.

The official records state that out of 30 schemes under execution, seven schemes that were due for completion between 2000-01 and 2006-07 had not been completed due to dispute over land, link alignment, insufficient water sources,non-completion of civil works, non-procurement, installation of machinery and inadequate funds.

There were 42 schemes under execution during 2003-08, and out of which only 12 were completed during the period.

Of the remaining 30 schemes, 19 suffered on account of frequent change of design and alignment, execution of works at a slow pace, incorporation of additional items or work not envisaged in the original estimates, non-provision of funds, which resulted in time and cost overrun.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

JEs with AMICE degrees denied promotions

Deptt says degree not valid for Govt jobs in State 1/14/2017  Nitesh Sangral   Early Times Report    Jammu, Jan 14: Number of Junior Engineers, having AMICE degrees, working in Public Health Engineering (PHE) Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Departments of Jammu and Kashmir State are running from pillar to post to get promotions since 2010 till date and files are pending for disposal of the same. However, Commissioner, Secretary of PHE Department Sanjeev Verma said department has already examined the said degree two times but both times the degree has been rejected. A group of JEs stated that the PWD (R&B) Department of J&K state have accepted the above said qualification and included the concerned Junior Engineers in the seniority list of JE (civil) degree holders and also have promoted vide Govt. order No. 362 PW(R&B) of 2014 Dated 14-08-2014 various junior engineers to the post of Assistant Engineers but PHE, I&FC Department...

Doctors' "negligence" claims 2 lives

Sent to Isolation Ward of suspected swine flu patients, they died for want of treatment 2/28/2015 Nitesh Sangral Early Times Report             Jammu, Feb 28: Due to alleged negligence on the part of health department, two patients died in the isolation wards meant for suspected swine flu cases at makeshift hospital in Col Chopra Nursing Home. One more case of GMCH doctors' alleged negligence came to the fore when the report of Dr Bhupinder Singh, a pediatrician tested negative for H1N1. He had died of respiratory problems last Thursday. The doctors had not bothered to examine him for some other disease. Similarly, a few days ago, a patient namely Raj Kumar died in the isolated ward of GMCH. He too was not affected with swine flu as per his medical report. He too failed to get the requisite treatment in the hospital. Reliable sources in GMCH said as per the medical examination report of Dr Bhupinder Singh, he was not infected with H1N1. Thi...

Drama in GMC; ex-Principal refuses to leave chair for successor

Dr Gillani, heal thyself 3/16/2017 Nitesh Sangral Early Times Report JAMMU, Mar 16: A high voltage drama was witnessed in the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) Jammu on Thursday when former the Principal refused to leave the chair for his successor. The government on Tuesday issued an order removing GMC Principal, Dr. Zahid Gillani, and appointed Dr. Sunanda Raina as the new Principal. But Dr Gillani refused to obey the order, and made rounds of the hospital premises, escorted by unwilling officials. Senior GMC doctors told Early Times that Dr Gillani entered into the chamber of the Principal and threw away the flower bouquets lying on the table, which had been presented to Dr Raina by the faculty members. "As Dr Raina came to know about the incident, she chose to rush to her department's room, as she didn't want to enter into any argument with the ex-Principal," sources said. "After spending an hour in the Principal'...