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| NC MLC creates ruckus in upper house, seeks account of NC-Cong power ministry | | Return of hydroelectric power projects | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
ET Report
Jammu, Mar 25: National Conference (NC) MLC Dr. Basheer Veeri today staged walkout over unsatisfactory replay of the power minister of PDP-BJP coalition government in response to his question on the implementation of the recommendations of Rangarajan Committee.
Veeri wanted the government to explain steps taken by erstwhile NC-Congress coalition government for transfer of power projects to the state as per Rangarajan committee recommendations. He wanted the Power Minister to given him details of the steps taken by erstwhile government of which he was a part and wherein the Power Ministry was with working President of the party he belongs to. Ex-Chief Minister and now, MLA Beerwah Omar Abdullah was the power minister.
The junior power minister was from Congress. Yet Dr. Basheer Veeri wanted 24 day old government to narrate story of the achievements of the previous NC-Congress coalition government. Dr. Veeri seemingly had not been told by the elders in the party that the NC-Congress coalition government failed to get any of the recommendations of the Rangarajan committee implemented during their 6 year term despite having cordial and heart-to-heart relationship with Congress high command, which essentially meant Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.
Yet Veeri wanted the BJP-PDP coalition government to sing songs in the praise of erstwhile NC-Congress coalition government. Minister of State for Power Mohammad Ashraf Mir in reply to the question of Dr. Basheer Veeri informed him that a cabinet sub-committee was constituted to look into various issues associated with transfer of power projects to the state which recommended seeking return of Salal, Uri-I and Dul Hasti projects to the state apart from those transfer to NHPC vide Memorandum of Understanding of July 2007.
The minister further said that J&K state Power Development Corporation was authorised to work out present cost of these projects on the basis of internationally accepted norms. He further said that Jammu and Kashmir government has received over Rs 2,400 crore on account of water usage charges from NHPC. He informed Veeri that JKSDPC has been allocated coal block (Kundnali Lubri in Odisha) jointly with NTPC with an allocated geological reserve of 130 and 266 Million Tonnes respectively.
He said the Union Ministry of coal has put a condition that allotment letter shall be issued to the Joint venture Company to be formed by the joint allottees and not to individual parties. He said that JKSPDC engaged SBICAPS as consultants to carry out the viability and sensitivity analysis of various options. He said that SBICAPS has furnished a report according to which with a coal availability of 3.40 Million Tonnes per annum, the installed capacity works out to be 660MW (Supercritical unit).
He further said that net financial impact by locating the project in J&K vis-à-vis Odisha is estimated at Rs. 700 crore per annum which translates to over Rs. 18000 crore over the lifetime of the project. Minister said that draft joint venture agreement has been cleared by the Law Department of J&K Government; however, formal signing of the agreement is yet to take place. Yet this did not suffice an agitated Dr. Veeri who kept saying that the answer is not satisfactory. He agitated for a while and on this, Minister for Horticulture Abdul Rehman Veeri intervened.
He said that unlike the previous government, PDP-BJP government understands that power management is a big challenge and government is making efforts to solve it on priority. He informed the House that serious and honest efforts will be made for return of Dul Hasti, Salal and Uri-I hydroelectric power projects to Jammu and Kashmir. "We will talk less and do more. Power generation is our major concern and we will do our best to tide over the losses," added Veeri.
Even this did not satisfy an agitated NC MLC who staged a walkout, much to the amazement of all the members in the legislative council. This was his second walkout of the day for reasons best known to him. Ghulam Nabi Monga, Naresh Kumar Gupta, Ajay Sadhotra and Jugal Kishore raised supplementaries to the main question. |
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