Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of Union Territory (UT) of J&K, has said that diversion of waters from the Western Rivers to Punjab will not be allowed. He said water from the Chenab river first needs to be provided to people in Jammu for drinking and other needs. Omar said Punjab never helped J&K and actually obstructed the construction of Shahpur Kandi project. It needs to be mentioned here this project was completed recently after 45 years.
Omar’s annoyance at the mention of Punjab can be better understood if one goes into the history of Shahpur Kandi project. It was signed in January 1979 by Omar’s grandfather Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who was then Chief Minister of J&K, then a state. On behalf of Punjab, this agreement on Shahpur Kandi was signed by late Prakash Singh Badal, then CM of our neighbouring state.
The Shahpur Kandi barrage was to be built downstream of Thein dam (located at Thein village, named Ranjit Sagar Dam by the Punjab government) but Punjab stalled it. As part of the overall deal, Punjab got hundreds of kanals of land from J&K for constructing the Ranjit Sagar Dam (RSD) to produce 600 MW of electricity from Ravi river. Incidentally, 85 per cent of land covered by the lake formed in the rear of RSD once belonged to J&K, 10 per cent of land submerged is of Himachal Pradesh and barely five per cent belonged to Punjab.
In lieu of massive chunks of land received from J&K, Punjab promised to give 20 per cent of electricity produced from RSD to it, besides providing some jobs to people from J&K and other incentives. However, once the land had been transferred to Punjab, it started making excuses to renege from its promises. In the process, it never gave 120 MW of electricity (20 per cent of 600 MW) as promised in the 1979 agreement.
The Punjab government also stalled the construction of Shahpur Kandi barrage from which J&K was to receive some water for irrigation. Things improved for J&K only after 2019 when Union Minister Nitin Gadkari intervened and this project was restarted. All this while, for nearly four decades, substantial amount of water continued to flow into Pakistan located south of the Shahpur Kandi barrage.
The experience of successive governments of J&K with Punjab over the last 45 years is the reason for bitterness harboured between the two neighbours. Omar has said that the Chenab water has to be first used to quench Jammu’s thirst and meet its other requirements. The question of any waters from the Western Rivers being taken to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan does not arise before that. This is the first time Omar has spoken against Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that the waters will be taken to these states.
Omar also criticised Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti and People’s Conference (PC) chief Sajjad Lone for raking up the new reservation policy put in place a year ago. He said Sajjad was occupying a government quarter and was close to the powers that be which brought about this policy. Omar pointed out that he was in detention for a long time as he was considered a threat by the government officials at one time.
It needs to be mentioned here that a new reservation policy came into effect some years after the abrogation of Article 35-A and whittling down Article 370. Under this policy, Gujjar-Bakerwal community was given Scheduled Tribe (ST) status in the political domain. Out of 90 Legislative Assembly seats, nine (10 per cent) have been reserved for the ST community. This has led to 16 out of 90 seats falling in the reserved category.
Incidentally, the ST status was granted to Paharis also after initially granting it to Gujjar-Bakerwals only. Not a single Pahari has been able to win any of the nine seats in the assembly but several Paharis have got selected under this category in the jobs. Earlier, almost all these jobs were cornered by Gujjar-Bakerwal candidates as Paharis were placed in the open category.
Omar mocked Mehbooba for maintaining silence during 2024 Lok Sabha elections which she contested from Anantnag constituency. Speaking against the new reservation policy then would have cost her votes of Gujjar-Bakerwal as also Pahari communities, he pointed out. Due to this, she not only did not say anything herself but even told her cadres to maintain ambiguity about her stance on the reservation issue, he added.
After the Union government had put the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance on April 23, Omar was one of the first political leaders to react to the development. He had openly said that IWT was against J&K and never helped it, as the Western Rivers flowing through it had all been allotted to Pakistan. He had also said that with IWT in abeyance, Tulbul Navigation Project on the Jhelum should be taken up immediately now that Pakistan’s objections to it have been set aside.
It needs to be mentioned here that the union government has already initiated several steps on this project which will entail dredging of Wullar lake and putting a navigation lock on it on the Baramullah side. This will improve the navigation as water levels will rise and plying of boats on the Jhelum around the year may become a reality once again as it was before.
