Haryana panel to probe into ‘irregularities’
CHANDIGARH: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said the state government will form a committee to look into various alleged irregularities in the Dadupur-Nalvi irrigation scheme which was conceived in 1985.
Briefing newspersons on the project, which was recently scrapped by the state government, Khattar said the decision to denotify the Dadupur-Nalvi canal project had been taken in the interest of farmers and the state.
Khattar said the government has decided to form the committee to look into all these aspects.
‘PROJECT WAS NOT VIABLE’
Justifying the denotificaton of the Dadupur-Nalvi project, Khattar said it was not viable. He said a scheme on which government had spent more than Rs 300 crore around 10 years ago, for which more than 1,000 acres of fertile land of farmers was acquired, was irrigating only about 300 acres, that too only during kharif crop.
“This was already an extremely expensive proposition. The present enhancement amount of Rs 580 crore for 167 acres could go up to about Rs 2,800 crore, if in future the remaining acquired land (2005 onwards) also attracted similar enhancement,’’ he added.
Khattar said due to public resistance, only 1,019 of the 2,246 acres could be acquired and efforts to acquire the remaining land were aborted in 2008. He said the comptroller and accountant general had observed that the scheme involved unfruitful expenditure since the primary objective of irrigation was not fulfilled.
‘FARMERS WON’T HAVE TO TAKE BACK LAND’
Khatttar said the government will not force any farmer to take back his land acquired for the project. He said the government will appoint a committee to which the land owners may apply for damages for restoration of land. “If they would not take back the land, the government would use it as per its own plans.’’ he said.
‘HC VERDICT STRANGE’
Khattar termed the recent Punjab and Haryana high court verdict on the issue as “vichitra” (strange). The HC has ordered enhancement in compensation rate for 167-acre acquired land for which extra payment Rs 580 crore was required to be made.