Shahpur-Kandi Dam: Completion Benefits J&K, Punjab - Union Minister

Jammu, Feb 29 (PTI) The Shahpur-Kandi dam project is nearing completion and will benefit four districts of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.

He also criticised the previous governments for ignoring the project for four decades.

On September 8, 2018, J&K and Punjab signed an agreement for resuming work on the Shahpur-Kandi dam project, which has been hanging fire for the last 40 years.

The project once completed would help reduce the quantum of India's share of Ravi waters flowing into Pakistan.

"What is the importance of this project? The story begins in 1960 when the Indus Water Treaty was signed between the then Pakistan president Mohammad Ayub Khan and the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru under which three (eastern) rivers – Ravi, Sutlej and Beas – were given to India and three (western) rivers – Sindhu, Jhelum and Chenab – were given to Pakistan.

"That means we got the biggest river that was Ravi and there was a need to construct a dam to utilise the water for irrigation of land in Kathua and Samba districts in Jammu and Kashmir and Gurdaspur and Pathankot in Punjab," the minister told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

He said it will be a topic of debate why the project, which was conceptualised in 1990, was not taken forward for completion.

"Probably it was because of vote bank politics or the ruling parties were not willing to develop the Kandi belt. Today, when the project is nearing completion, it will irrigate 3,500 to 4,000 hectares of land in this belt."

"Why we deliberately and for unknown reasons deprived ourselves of the benefits of the projects, which will transform the entire belt," he said, adding the time will come when the coming generations will ask questions from their parents about why their area is called Kandi belt.

Asked whether the waters from the river would not flow to Pakistan after the completion of the project, he said, "The waters belong to us (as per the treaty), and we will utilise it properly. The water was going to Pakistan by default because the project was not completed previously".

"When there used to be a (cross-border) firing, our leaders used to call for a stoppage of water to Pakistan even as one of our own rivers was flowing unhindered in the neighbouring country," he added.