The Hindu : Kerala News : Tough tasks ahead for Thiruvanchoor

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 13, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Tough tasks ahead for Thiruvanchoor

By Radhakrishnan Kuttoor

The Pampa ... in need of an action plan.

PATHANAMTHITTA, SEPT. 12. The new Water Resources Minister, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, has a tough task at hand — dealing with crucial environmental issues in the State.

Though the Union Government has sanctioned a few major river and lake conservation projects for the State, the `indifference' on the part of the Water Resources Ministry has come in the way of implementing them. The Pampa action plan, Vembanad lake conservation project and the project to conserve the Ashtamudi and Sasthamkottah lakes are some of the major Centre-State joint ventures which have been inordinately delayed.

Pampa action plan

The National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) under the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment allotted the Central share of Rs.12.92 crores for the Rs.18.45-crore first phase of the Pampa action plan on May 3, 2003. But the State is yet to utilise the fund for a pollution-free Pampa owing to its failure to complete the formalities in this regard. The Pampa is the first river to be included in the National River Conservation Programme (NRCP) from the State.

The then Union Minister for Forests and Environment, T.R. Baalu, announced the inclusion of the Pampa in the NRCP on June 15, 2001 and the State Pollution Control Board (PCB) prepared a Rs.278-crore pre-feasibility report, which the Government submitted to the NRCD on March 25, 2002. A high-level team led by the then Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, and the then Water Resources Minister, T.M. Jacob, submitted the Rs.319.7-crore project report to the Union Ministry on December 19, 2002.

NRCD guidelines

The NRCD guidelines say that once the scheme is approved the State Government is supposed to submit detailed project reports with firmed up cost estimates for various sub-components. Though the State has submitted the project report, it is yet to submit the detailed project report. However, taking into consideration the importance of Sabarimala, the NRCD sanctioned 11 works at Sabarimala and Pampa, estimated at Rs.18.45 crores. The State has been told to complete the first phase in four years.

The Kerala Water Authority was made the nodal agency for the implementation of the project on November 18, 2003 and a Government Order was issued stating that seven of the 11 works be executed by the Travancore Devaswom Board and the remaining four by the Water Resources Department.

Though a State-level monitoring committee with the Water Resources Minister as chairman and the Water Resources Secretary as convener was formed later, no steps have been taken to implement the project.

Lake conservation

The State Government has also failed to initiate any steps to implement the Rs.16.5-crore conservation scheme for the Sasthamkottah and Ashtamudi lakes which have been declared Ramsar sites. The NRCD direction to the State to submit a project report for the conservation of the Vembanad lake for its inclusion in the NRCP has met with the same fate.

Inter-State disputes

Similarly, the controversy over inter-State water sharing agreements between Kerala and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and the `diversion' of water by Tamil Nadu from the border areas of the State are going to be litmus tests for the new Minister.

The Central Government move to go ahead with the proposed Pampa-Achencoil-Vaipar Link Project is another test case for the Minister.

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