Jammu, March 30: While the budget from MGNREGA scheme witnesses a threefold increase in the next financial year, the Committee on Estimates, comprising members of both Assembly and Council, has observed that there is a lack of coordination between the irrigation and rural development departments in the utilisation of funds available under the national flagship programme. The report of the committee, headed by Congress legislator Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, was tabled in the state Assembly today.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests gave a green signal to Ratle Hydro Electric Project Pvt Ltd, a GVK Group company, to increase the capacity of its power project from 690 MW to 850 MW.

Ratle Hydro Electric Project, which is constructing the project on Chenab River in Kishwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, is expected to start operations in 2017 and it will provide 16 per cent of its output to Jammu and Kashmir free of any charge.

Shimla: The transmission of power from the hydel projects located in the Chandrabhaga basin will be undertaken through the 9-km-long Rohtang tunnel, thereby reducing the total cost of transmission by several crores. The state government has already held talks with the Rohtang tunnel authorities to allow the transmission of power through the Rohtnag tunnel by way of gas-filled cables. In case the proposal comes through, it will be for the first time anywhere in the state that power transmission will take place through gas-filled cables.

To explore markets elsewhere in the country and abroad for its saffron, basmati rice and rajmash among various other agricultural produce, the Jammu-Kashmir government is adopting organic farming in a systematic manner.

Udhampur: The work on construction of a new 10-kilometre Lambi Zai-Jora Road in Bhadarwah area of Doda district which touches Souti Changa, the native village of Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad could not be started for want of forest clearance. This is just one of the various roads proposed to provide vital road connectivity to people living in remote and inaccessible areas of Ramban, Kishtwar and Doda districts but their construction is held up due to delay in clearance by the forest department. Some have been hanging fire for more than a year.

Promotion of organic farming in Jammu region
JAMMU: To promote organic farming in Jammu province, Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with three reputed companies of the country to help the local cultivators of various crops to switch over to this mode of farming.

Political interference prevents them from taking action against illegal power connections in the district, claim officials in the Power Development Department (PDD) here. Power pilferage in Kishtwar, they added, was the highest but the department has not been able to act against illegal connections.

Environment Ministry's panel to consider request on Nov 11
JAMMU: With the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Central Water Commission (CWC) indicating that upcoming Ratle Hydro Electric Project on River Chenab in Kishtwar district has the potential to generate more electricity than the already projected,

GVK Power and Infrastructure would commence work on its 690 MW hydro-electric power project at Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir by December 2011, a company official has said.

“By December, this year, we will be able to start work on the Ratle hydro project at Kishtwar district in J&K,” Chief Finance Officer, Mr Isaac George, told PTI.

The 690 MW power plant is likely to be commissioned in the year 2017. Situated on the river Chenab, it will provide 16 per cent of its output to the state of Jammu and Kashmir free of charge.