C’garh House panel to probe sale of dam to private firm

Mohammad Akbar,Nandkumar Patel,Dharamjit Singh (All Congress) and their party colleagues were on their feet,demanding that the Rogda dam area be taken back from Hyderabad based KSK Energy ventures Limited  and lodging of an First Information Report (FIR) against state Chief Secretary and others. They pointed out that the water resources minister Hemchand Yadav had already stated in the house that he was unaware of the decision and the matter did not come up before him for ratification.

As Oposition legislators continued to press for a statement from the government,raising slogans against sale of dam,Mohammad Akbar was heard quoting a Supreme Court order against destroying of any water bodies. “If the dam is not used for irrigation purpose,it could have been utilized for water-recharging and other purposes. The government handed over the dam to the company in 2008 and a high level committee,headed by Chief Secretary,tried to regularize the handover in February 2010. Now the dam has been dismantled’,leader of the opposition Ravindra Choubey alleged. 

As noisy scenes continued,Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik adjourned the house till 1 pm. Later,Choubey told newsmen that his party wants a time bound probe by the house panel as it has become almost clear that state Chief Secretary P Joy Oommen and other officials had gone out of their way to regularize Rogda dam’s handover to the private power company.

After the house re-assembled,Choubey and his party legislators continued to press for a probe by the house committee.  As Legislative affairs Minister Brijmohan Agrawal said the government was ready to abide by any decision of the chair,Speaker Dharamlal kaushik announced setting up of a five member house panel which would submit its report before the last working day of the next assembly session.