Cong govts neglected Nurpur’s canal project: Ex-min

Nurpur, August 21

Former minister and Nurpur’s ex-MLA Rakesh Pathania said here today that the successive Congress governments in the state had neglected the area’s Rs 643-crore ambitious multi-dimensional Phina Singh canal project.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Pathania said the project was envisaged by former minister and Nurpur’s ex-MLA late Sat Mahajan in 1985, but executed by former chief ministers Prem Kumar Dhumal (2007-2012) and Jairam Thakur (2017-2022).

He said for the execution and Central government’s approvals, he and former Irrigation-cum-Public Health Minister Mohinder Singh Thakur had made efforts and brought it in the fast-track category of Prime Minister Krishi Sanchai Yojana (PMKSY) in 2019 by revising its detailed project report (DPR) as a multi-dimensional irrigation project.

Pathania lamented that during the annual budget of financial year 2023-24, the state government had allocated only Rs 4 lakh for this ambitious project, which indicated lack of seriousness of the government for the Nurpur Assembly constituency. Talking on the proposed benefits of the canal project, the former minister said it would provide not only drinking and irrigation water but also generate 2 megawatts electricity, boost fish cultivation and tourism which generated direct and indirect employment opportunities in the lower Kangra hills. “The tunnel and 17.70-km-long distributary channels have been laid and the project’s tunnel has been constructed, while the beneficiaries’ distributary channels and project dam are to be constructed,” he said.

The project was planned for interlinking the Kalam nullah and the Chakki rivulet, tributaries of the Beas and the project’s dam water had to be carried through a 4.30-km tunnel to irrigate over 4000 hectares in around 60 villages of the Nurpur area. The tunnel was inaugurated by former CM Jairam Thakur in June 2022.