SRINAGAR: J&K CM Omar Abdullah It said on Monday that political parties should not interfere in energy projects currently underway in the Kishtwar region and that law enforcement agencies should take action against those obstructing the work.The statement came days after construction firm Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd. (MEIL), which is building an upcoming 850-megawatt hydropower project at Ratle on River Chenab, had threatened to pull out over alleged interference by a local BJP legislator.“There should be absolutely no interference in the work,” Omar, who is also energy minister, told reporters here. “If such allegations had been made against any of my ministers, the ACB (Anti-Corruption Bureau) would have acted by now and conducted raids.”“These projects are not just for J&Km but for the entire country,” the CM said.Without naming the legislators, he said that though the corporation had named one MLA, two local legislators of the BJP were interfering in all power projects in Kishtwar district.On Saturday, Harpal Singh, joint managing director of MEIL, accused BJP local MP Shagun Parihar of persistent interference and alleged that she and others had tried to disrupt the project. Singh said the company was under pressure from her to provide jobs and warned that MEIL could pull out.Singh said MEIL employed more than 1,468 workers in the project, including 977 from Kishtwar. “We don’t have any vacancies. We can’t hire people under political pressure,” he said.Singh has also lodged two complaints with Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar. The first was filed last week over an alleged attack on a senior company official on December 4th.On Monday, he filed another complaint accusing local social media influencer Asif Iqbal Naik of spreading “false, defamatory and threatening content” on social media against MEIL officer Syed Burhan Andrabi and sought registration of a police case against him.In his video, Naik had claimed that terrorists are operating in Kishtwar and that they may have links with Kashmiri employees working on the Ratle project.Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the Ratle project in 2013, but progress was slow due to recurring work backlogs.The Rs 3,700-crore project on Chenab river is a joint venture between the Centre’s NHPC Ltd and the J&K State Power Development Corporation Ltd (JKSPDC). The project includes a 133-meter-high dam and an underground power plant with five turbines.After its inception in 2013, the contract for the project was awarded to GVK Group on a 35-year build-own-operate-transfer basis. The company withdrew within two years without giving reasons.In addition to the Ratle project, NHPC Ltd. through joint venture companies with JKSPDC, also implemented three other large hydropower projects in Kishtwar with a total installed capacity of 3,014 megawatts.
