Uttarakhand should be adequately compensated for the expected revenue loss resulting from compromise on developmental projects for conservation of natural resources. Chief Minister Harish Rawat said this at a meeting of the Namami Gange programme chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Rawat said that the Centre should entirely fund Ganga cleaning works apart from bearing the cost of damage to Ganga River related infrastructure.
“The minimum ecological flow of the river should be fixed without delay since its absence is affecting the execution of various development works. The State should be empowered to remove silt from river banks to address the threat of flood resulting from silt deposit during the monsoon,” he said.
Apart from construction of Sewage treatment plants and industrial effluent plants in urban areas and sites near rivers, guidelines will also have to be made to prevent pollution, he added. “Our state has experienced the importance of water conservation works. The State has proposed the building of one lakh water bodies on forest, rural and barren lands. If a small State like Uttarakhand achieves this, the Central Government can surely achieve better results,” the CM said.
Without conserving water in Uttarakhand, one cannot raise the level of water in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers during the winter and summer and any cleaning campaign would be inadequate without increasing the water level. The CM said that the State wants to extend its power generation capacity to make the State self reliant in power generation and capable of supplying the surplus power.
Following a decision taken in the second meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority in November 2010, three hydro electric projects- 600 MW lohari Nagpala, 480 MW Pala Maneri and 381 MW Bhaironghati projects were shut down while later in August 2013 the Supreme Court directed that 24 power projects amounting to 2944 MW be closed down.
The eco-sensitive zone notification has prohibited the expansion of existing power projects of more than 2 MW capacity in the notified area in Uttarkashi district. Due to this the State will not be able to utilise 16 power projects of 1743 MW. The ESZ notification and restriction on power projects will result in an annual loss of Rs3,581 crore to the State. The State had to abandon 34 power projects totaling to 4069 MW started earlier with initial work done on them, due to the NGRBA and Supreme Court decisions in addition to the ESZ notification for the area between Gaumukh and Gangotri.
Permission should be granted to continue operation of such power projects below 25 MW in the ESZ that have negligible impact on the environment. ESZ notification without public consultation has caused much disappointment among the people, he added.