Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have objected to Uttar Pradesh having started work on the Kanhar Irrigation Project. Both states had issued no-objection certificates but are now upset that UP has started work without finalising the rehabilitation of families who will be displaced by inundation. On April 30, Chhattisgarh chief secretary Vivek Dhand wrote to his UP counterpart Alok Ranjan that four Chhattisgarh villages would be submerged, and that the UP government had not sent a new survey proposal. Dhand also issued a statement saying the UP government was carrying on construction in a “hurried manner” ignoring the interests of Chhattisgarh villagers and demanding that construction “be stopped immediately till the (rehab and relief) issues are resolved”. [related-post] In Jharkhand, the water resources department is searching its files for old correspondence with UP so that it can write to that state to clear “pending” issues. This is reportedly at the instance of minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi, MLA from Garhwa where four villages will be submerged. “The issue was brought to our notice by the minister. We have now started looking at old files,” Sukhdeo Singh, principal secretary (water resources) told The Indian Express Wednesday. “While the details of the NOC will be clear in the next few days, the basic issue is that there will be submergence of an area in Jharkhand and we need to undertake due process for relief and rehabilitation and also acquisition of land.”
