According to Kashmir based news daily, Daily Excelsior, the Union Government along with the State Government planned for the construction of the Ujh Multipurpose Project in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The project on river Ujh in Kathua district will block 531 Million Cubic Meters (MCM) of water flowing to Pakistan and divert it to Indian states including Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
The government of India had approved of the project in January, last year. On February 12, a decision to implement the project was taken at a high-level meeting held in New Delhi. The meeting was headed by the Governor of J&K, Satya Pal Malik, and attended by Union Minister for Surface Transport and Water Resources, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of State in the PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh and top officials from J&K as well as the Central Government.
“After threadbare discussions, it has been decided that a road map would be devised immediately to block the flow of 531 MCM water to Pakistan after construction of the project and instead spread this water to the neighboring State of Punjab followed by Haryana and, if possible, even up to Rajasthan as it has been observed that only 250 MCM water would reach Kathua and surroundings,” said a source.
The Code of Conduct for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is going to be imposed soon. Keeping in mind the deadline, both Central and State Governments wanted to lay the foundation stone for the Ujh project as soon as possible. A noteworthy fact is that the Model Code of Conduct is likely to be implemented by the end of February or start of March.
The project is scheduled to be completed within a time span of six years (from the day the project is launched). The total cost of the project has been pegged at Rs 5850 crore, of which Rs 4919.94 crore is part of the irrigation cost and the rest will be spent on construction. The project was lingering on for more than 25 years and previous Governments of Jammu and Kashmir didn’t take any initiative to kick start the project.
India has been generous towards Pakistan for decades regarding the use of water from the Indus river system, but Pakistan’s ill-advised actions forced the Indian leadership to deal strictly with them. The government has now decided to fast-track three projects on the Indian part of the river system to stop its share of water flowing down to Pakistan. The three projects include construction of two dams- Ujh dam and Shahpur Kandi dam and Sutlej-Beas link in Punjab. After the recent attack on the Indian forces in Pulwama district, it is utmost important to execute the Project Ujh as soon possible. Pakistan is not one that should be treated with apathy and softly, it is the about time to take strict action.