Govt moots salinity plan

GANDHINAGAR, July 22: The government is considering a proposal for a Saurashtra-Kutch Salinity Ingress Elimination Board for effective im...

GANDHINAGAR, July 22: The government is considering a proposal for a Saurashtra-Kutch Salinity Ingress Elimination Board for effective implementation of the Rs 1,702- crore programme to check increasing salinity ingress in the coastal areas, says Narmada Development Minister Jaynarayan Vyas.

The government has also decided to complete by this October the process of giving land title deeds to over 4,500 of the total 7,000 villagers displaced by irrigation schemes. About 2,500 received the deeds for the agriculture and residential purposes in the past two months, Vyas told the Assembly today.

Replying to the debate on the budgetary demands of his department, Vyas, who also hold the major irrigation schemes portfolio, said over six lakh hectares in the coastal areas had been hit by salinity ingress which had been advancing at one km a year.

Vyas assured the House that the government would neither accept changes in the SSP project profile, nor accept any proposal for reduction of the dam height. 8220;We are pursuing in the right earnest the Narmada case pending in the Supreme Court8221;, he said.

Vyas said Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam had geared up rehabilitation and resettlement machinery for the Narmada oustees. Some 10 teams of surveyors have been constituted and 21 agriculture graduates appointed to provide basic facilities to the project-affected persons PAPs in their settlements. Besides, a rehabilitation agency8217;s office will soon be opened at Barvani in Madhya Pradesh to educate the PAPs of that State on Gujarat8217;s rehabilitation package.

Vyas said the Government had decided to purchase additional 5,000 hectares from the State Land Bank to resettle the PAPs.

Replying to the debate on the budgetary demands of his department, Minister of State for Law and Judiciary Hemant Chapatwala said the Government had decided to directly fill up the post of a Charity Commissioner in Ahmedabad, and was not averse to shifting the CC8217;s office to Gandhinagar.

Story continues below this ad

Chapatwala said the government planned to open Charity Commissioner8217;s office at Mehsana and Bharuch. Responding to a BJP member8217;s suggestion, he said he was aware of the demand for a metropolitan court in Surat in view of the increasing population.