The authorities of Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department have reportedly denied the utilization of latest technology in dredging of and sand extraction from water bodies in Kashmir, citing ‘technical issues.’
Several educated unemployed youth had fetched machines that float on water and pump sand through a temporary pipeline to offsite location, obviously to earn their livelihood.
However, they were not granted permission to operate in river Jhelum by officials of I&FC department for ‘technical reasons.’
The aggrieved owners argue that the machines are being used across the world, adding, “The report, objecting to their usage, was prepared by lower rank official of Irrigation and Flood Control department and was not based on facts and technicalities but a pre-fixed plan to reject them (modern machines).”
They alleged that the machines were denied permission for reasons other than technical.
“The trial of machines was conducted near the river bank while as the machine is supposed to operate in the middle of river,” they rued.
The aggrieved owners also took a dig at the tender allotted to an outside state company.
“The company is awarded tender of Rs 46 crore for dredging and has to pay back Rs 12 core to the government as royalty for the material extracted from Jhelum,” they said, adding, “Some officials in I&FC department want few blue eyed local contractors to buy the extracted material from the company.”
“To ensure that the extracted sand is sold at good rates to benefit only few blue eyed contractors, the officials sabotaged the process of granting permission to the operation of modern machines,” alleged Maqsood Ahmad Malik, one of the machine owners.
Seconding him, Dawood Ahmad Mir, another machine owner, counted the benefits of the usage of machines.
“We used these machines, worth crores, for few days and the rates of sand per tipper fell from Rs 6000 to Rs 4000 within three days. Had we been allowed to continue, the tipper-load of sand would cost around Rs 3000 to Rs 3500 to the consumers,” he said.
“We have to respond to the winds of change and adopt modern technology at every level for effective results,” Mir added.
Senior officials of I&FC department are either tight-lipped over the issue or don’t respond to the repeated phone calls and text messages.
Mushtaq Ahmad, Junior Engineer I&FC department, admitted that the machines could have been used in Zero Bridge, Qamarwari and other areas.
“Yes, it is true that these machines should have been granted permission for sand extraction. We need to extract sand from these areas for smooth flow of water in the river. The owners of these machines were also ready to pay royalty to state exchequer,” he added.
