Uttarakhand: Jal Shakti Ministry again obstructs 21 hydropower projects, now the state’s eyes are on PMO
The Jal Shakti Ministry has again put a hindrance in the meeting held in Delhi on the 21 hydropower projects of 2123.6 MW of the state. Now it has been decided that a decision will be taken on this matter by holding a meeting in the Prime Minister’s Office under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary PMO. On the other hand, last month Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has also written a letter to PM Modi in this regard.
The secretaries of the Union Ministry of Energy, Jal Shakti Ministry and Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change attended the meeting in Delhi. Secretary Energy R Meenakshi Sundaram and MD of UJVNL Dr. Sandeep Singhal attended the meeting from Uttarakhand. In the meeting, 21 hydropower projects proposed in the state were discussed.
Out of these, 11 projects are non-controversial while 10 projects are such, which have been given the green signal by the expert committee of the Supreme Court. In the meeting, the officials of the Jal Shakti Ministry said that in the meeting held in the PMO in 2019, it was decided that these projects cannot be built.
Meeting will be held in PMO
On this, the state government said that the final report of the expert committee constituted on the instructions of the Supreme Court in the matter came in 2020. In this report, these projects have been given the green signal. Despite this, the matter could not be resolved. It was decided that now a meeting will be held in the PMO in this matter.
In the month of June, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had sent a letter to Prime Minister Modi in this regard. In this, he had told that if the Jal Shakti Ministry disagrees, the development of these projects will not be possible. The date of final hearing in the Supreme Court in the matter is fixed on August 7. He has said in the letter that in the meeting held on July 7 last year under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary PM Office, permission was requested for these projects in a phased manner.
No guidelines have been issued so far regarding the decision of the meeting. He also expected the Supreme Court to present the final report of the expert committee on these projects for review and file an affidavit accordingly. It was demanded that it should be reviewed. The date of the meeting in the PMO has not been fixed yet.
