Kerala - Alappuzha   

Uncertainty over Kuttanad package

ALAPPUZHA: The Rs.1,840-crore Kuttanad package recommended by the M.S. Swaminathan Commission is heading towards more uncertainty.

It is not just the Union Water Resources Ministry’s objection to the package that is raising concerns for Kerala. The module under which the Union government may sanction the irrigation projects in the package, which are estimated at Rs.1,400 crore, is what is giving the State government sleepless nights.

Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran says there is a possibility of the irrigation projects in the package being sanctioned under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), which means the State government will have to shell out 75 per cent of the total funds required for these projects. Raising around Rs.1,000 crore for the purpose could be a gargantuan task, Mr. Premachandran says.

The possibility of the projects being sanctioned under the AIBP is quite strong because of Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz’s opposition to the package on at least three counts:

First, it is Mr. Soz’s ministry that will have to find funds for the irrigation projects in the package, and that too, from the budget already allocated to the ministry. Mr. Soz is learnt to have objected to the manner in which the Union Agriculture Ministry went ahead with the package without ‘involving’ the Union Water Resources Ministry. Mr. Soz is also apprehensive about ‘such a huge financial package for a single district.’

“But we are trying our best to convince him that developing Kuttanad means developing the rice bowl of Kerala and the State’s entire agrarian sector. We have invited him to come to Kerala and tour Kuttanad to understand the agrarian crisis here directly,” Mr. Premachandran says.

“However, approval for the package is more important. The issue of funds can be sorted out after that. And the State strongly feels that such issues between two Central departments should not be impediments to a development project initiated by the Prime Minister himself,” Mr. Premachandran says.

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