3500-4000 hectares of land to be irrigated by Shahpur Kandi dam: Dr Jitendra

Jammu, Feb 29:  Union Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh Thursday, while accusing the previous regimes of deliberately stalling one of the most crucial projects, stated that Shahpur Kandi dam would facilitate irrigation of 3500-4000 Hectares of land in Kandi belt of Samba and Kathua in J&K.

He was speaking to the media on the sidelines of “Mudra Loan Mela” organised by State Bank of India here.

With regard to the Mudra scheme, he said, “J&K has been highly benefited under the Mudra scheme. This is evident from the fact that out of over 6 Cr beneficiaries across the country, J&K has nearly 25,000 beneficiaries though being a smaller territory with a lesser population compared to some UTs and many states in the country.” He also congratulated the State Bank of India, J&K chapter for this achievement.

Responding to questions about Shahpur Kandi dam project and India stopping flow of Ravi water to Pakistan, Dr Jitendra said that this story began in 1960 when the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) came into being and Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was the Prime Minister of the country.

“As per IWT, India was given exclusive right over water of Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers while Pakistan was given right to use water of Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. The previous regimes deliberately ignored this crucial aspect of the Treaty and stalled Shahpur Kandi dam project. It would have benefitted Samba and Kathua districts of J&K and Gurdaspur and Pathankot areas of Punjab. In 1990, the work started yet it kept on lingering due to the non-serious attitude of those governments,” he said.

“People would question and analyse in future if there was deliberate delay by the previous regimes in the construction of this dam for vote-bank politics or if they did not want arid (Kandi) belt of Samba-Kathua districts to be irrigated and developed. This project is going to transform the whole belt. In future, the children would ask their parents as to why these areas were referred to as Kandi areas. Whenever there used to be ceasefire violations in the past, the politicians would demand a stoppage of water to Pakistan, just out of ignorance. As a matter of fact, for the past several decades, water was flowing to Pakistan by default,” he said.

Earlier while addressing the gathering, the Union Minister said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi created lucrative livelihood opportunities other than government jobs through different schemes like Mudra, Start-Up India, Aroma Mission etc.

“There are instances of youngsters leaving corporate jobs to opt for StartUp entrepreneurship. What is significant is that across the country, about 60 to 70 percent of Mudra beneficiaries are women,” said Dr Jitendra.

During the programme,he emphasised that there won’t be any scheme in the world supported by a bank without a guarantee or a mortgage.

“But, Mudra scheme started under PM Modi and supported by the banks disbursed loans under this scheme without a guarantee or a mortgage and the only guarantee is Modi’s guarantees which means guarantee of fulfilment of a guarantee. Schemes like PM-SVANidhi, PM Vishwakarma etc. have touched and benefited that strata of the society that has not been taken care of by the previous governments. But, PM Narendra Modi has taken care of every segment of the society without any discrimination or vote bank politics,” he said.

While appreciating the Direct Bank Transfer (DBT) conceptualised by PM Narendra Modi, Dr Jitendra said, “DBT has garnered international recognition and has become the role model for the world. It has been able to save one lakh crore which is a massive achievement of the PM Modi led government.”

He said, “Another important aspect of these schemes is that these are largely women driven empowering women be that Mudra, PMAY etc. as the PM Modi led government is strongly focussing on Nari Shakti, youth, farmers and poor.”