Rs 2,900 cr aid for Punjab pending with Centre: Dhillon

Dhillon has submitted a detailed list of irrigation projects, worth Rs 2,943.46 crore, he claimed were meant for the state but were not being released by the union water ministry headed by Bharti.

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Uma Bharti with the letter submitted by Dhillon. (Source: Expres Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

With Punjab’s water table rapidly deteriorating, state Irrigation Minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon pressed the panic button on Tuesday and urged Union Minister Uma Bharti, who was in PAU, to release funds meant for the state.

In a letter to Bharti (copy with The Indian Express), Dhillon has submitted a detailed list of irrigation projects, worth Rs 2,943.46 crore, he claimed were meant for the state but were not being released by the union water ministry headed by Bharti. He urged her to get the funds released at the earliest.

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Dhillon also demanded a special financial package from the Centre for the state’s water conservation and irrigation plans. Speaking to The Indian Express, Dhillon said: “Punjab is in danger. We are awaiting release of more than Rs 2,900 crore from the central ministry to start our projects. The day is not far when we will be another Rajasthan. I have asked the minister for a special financial package too”.

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Among those initiatives stuck due to want of funds is the relining of the Rajasthan and Sirhind feeders, estimated to cost around Rs 2,125 crore. While then original project, then estimated at Rs 1,440 crore, was approved by the Centre in 2009, work could not be carried out due to non-release of funds. Punjab has now sought Rs 2,125 crore. Dhillon’s letter states that the funds had initially been held up due to change in guidelines but added that even after Punjab has completed all procedures, funds are not being released.

Another project cleared by the Technical Advisory Committee but awaiting funds is the flood protection and river management in border areas, estimated to cost Rs 161.04 crore. The project is important from the strategic point of view as the river Ravi flows in a zigzag manner at the Indo-Pak border.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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