union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Thursday said that the Shahpur Kandi project is set to transform the bordering districts of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
“Needless to say, the Shahpur Kandi Project is set to transform bordering districts of J&K and Punjab through enhanced irrigation and agricultural growth,” Dr Singh said in a post on X.
He further said, “The project is now almost complete, and its completion marks the fulfilment of a decades-old lurking aspiration of the people of the region.”
The Shahpur Kandi National Project on the Kathua district border is a tell-tale story. Following the Indus Valley Treaty of 1960, India’s share comprised three rivers, namely Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, of which Ravi was the largest river. Somewhere in the late 1970s, a national project was envisaged on the river Ravi so that the Indian share of water could be used on the Indian side without allowing it to flow into Pakistan,” he posted.
He further wrote that in 1984, the foundation stone-laying ceremony was solemnised by the then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, but after her assassination a few months later, the project was put on the back burner, and successive governments, both at the centre and in J&K State, remained indifferent.
“It was nearly three decades later, when the BJP govt took over in 2014, that the request to revive the project was put up; Chief Secretaries of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab were taken into the loop, new documents were prepared, and in February 2019, at a public rally in Jammu, PM Narendra Modi announced the revival of the project,” Dr Singh posted.
