Jammu, July 12: The Jammu and Kashmir Government would stake a forceful claim on the state’s share of power and water from Ranjit Sagar Dam at the North Zone Consultative Committee (NZCC) meeting scheduled to be held on Friday afternoon at Chandigarh.
 Sources said that the issue tops the agenda of state government delegation that is going to attend the high-level meeting.
 The NZCC meeting at Mountview Chandigarh will be chaired by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and attended by chief ministers of seven northern states to discuss various interstate issues.
  “The issue of denial of power and water share in Ranjit Sagar Dam by Punjab government and property of J&K in northern states including Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi are the main issues that will be projected by Jammu and Kashmir during the meeting,” a highly placed source told Greater Kashmir..
 Pertinently, under the Ravi River agreement of 1979 J&K is entitled to 20 percent electricity and irrigation water from the reservoir but Punjab has so far backtracked from the agreement causing huge loss to J&K state.
 “Punjab backtracked from its promise, causing a loss of Rs 8,600 crore to J&K till date including, Rs 6,250 crore on account of losses in food grain productivity and Rs 2,350 crore due to denial of its electricity share. These issues are on the top of the agenda of J&K,” sources said.
 Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Taj Mohi-ud-din, who is also part of the state delegation, said that under the Inter-State Council meeting held in 1955, 0.69 million acre feet (MAF) of water from the Ravi River was allotted to J&K by the Centre.
 “Presently we get just 0.215 MAF water from the Ranjit Sgar Dam. The state is still entitled to 0.475 MAF of water share and our 320 kilometre long distributaries network is awaiting water since last 30 years” he said.
 He added that the state government has already staked  its claim before Punjab government and would again take up the matter at the NZCC meeting.
 Sources further said that the state delegation would also take up the issue of J&K’s property in other northern states. “The state government’s land and property in Delhi, Chandigarh and other northern states are also on our agenda” sources said.
 Chief Ministers of 7 northern states, including Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir are participating in the meeting.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST