Decision to denotify the Dadupur Nalvi canal has been taken- Manoher Lal.

Chandigarh October 10: Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Lal said that the decision to denotify the Dadupur Nalvi canal has been taken in the interest of farmers and the State. Claiming his government as pro-farmer, he said that government would not force any farmer to take his land back which was aquired for the project.
Mr Manohar Lal was addressing a press conference here today.
While giving solid reasons for denotifying the land, the Chief Minister said that the project was not viable as it failed to fulfill the the purpose for which it was conceived. He said that a scheme on which Government has spent more than 300 crores nearly 10 years ago, for which more than 1000 acres of fertile land of farmers was acquired, is irrigating only about 300 acres, that too only during kharif crop. This is already an extremely expensive proposition. The present enhancement amount of 580 crores for 167 acres can go upto about Rs. 2800 crore, if in future balance acquired land (year 2005 onwards) also attracts similar enhancement, he added. He said that after issuance of notification for de-notifying the land, Government would appoint a committee to which the land owners may apply for damages for restoration of land.
He said that initially in the year 1985, the scheme envisaged to supply 590 cusecs water round the year to irrigate 46,717 Hactare land by using surplus Ravi Beas water on completion of Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. He said that though about 190 Acres land was acquired, but largely the scheme remained a nonstarter due to non-completion of SYL. The water availability from the scheme was scaled down in the year 2005 to use 590 Cusec of surplus Yamuna water during rainy season for only about two months in a year.
The Chief Minister said that due to public resistance, only 1019 acres out of 2246 acres could be acquired and efforts to acquire balance land were aborted in the year 2008. Thus minors could not be constructed to irrigate the fields. As a result irrigation during last 5 years has been 24 acre, 305 acre, 357 acre, 334 acre and 199 acre only as against a revised target of 46,252 Hactare or approximately 1,14,000 acres. Even highest availability of water for recharge in the past five years was equivalent to 590 Cusec supply for only 28-30 days, he added.
He said that the CAG in its report of 2013 observed the scheme as unfruitful since the primary objective of irrigation was not being by fulfilled. Now the Hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered exorbitant enhancement in compensation rate for 167 acres acquired land (spread over approximately 15 kilometers) for which payment of nearly 580 crores more is required to be made for 167 Acres alone.