PESHAWAR, July 1: The provincial assembly has demanded that the federal government should determine the NWFP’s share in the Ghazi Barotha hydel project’s income in line with Islamabad’s decision to accept the right of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on the net income of Mangla Dam.

Speaking on an adjournment motion, Abdul Akbar Khan of the PPP said water resources, barrage, reservoir, flood gates of the project and two-thirds of the canal were located in the NWFP. He said only the power house was situated in Punjab, but the NWFP was being denied any share in the project’s income. He said the proposed 7km-long and 2km-wide lake would leave a large cultivated area of the province inundated.

He said the project would generate 1,450MW electricity (about 8 billion units) annually. If Wapda gave us one rupee per unit, the province would get Rs8 billion, he added.

He said about 125,000 acres land would be affected by the project and added that two-thirds of the 52km-long canal was running through the NWFP. Yet, he regretted, Wapda had not determined a single penny for the province.

Under Article 155 of Constitution, he said, Wapda could not deprive any province from its due share of water. He spoke about demerits of the project and said its requirements were against the deliberations of the Indus River System Authority.

On the other hand, he pointed out, Wapda had agreed to pay to the AJK government 15 paisa per unit out of the net hydel profit of Mangla Dam. He said Wapda had decided to raise the height of the dam by 40 feet and agreed to pay compensation to affected people.

ANP’s Bashir Ahmed Khan Bilour and PML-Q’s Anwar Kamal Marwat supported the motion and urged the government to take up the issue with Wapda and the federal government. Mr Marwat said experts’ opinion on the matter was essential.

Speaker Bakht Jahan Khan referred the motion to the standing committee on irrigation for consideration and preparation of a report on the issue.

The house adopted six resolutions relating to resumption of chopper service between Darosh (Dir) and Chitral, inclusion of marketing services and processing storage in agriculture plans, restoration of the old system of submitting arms licence fee with post offices, early provision of computerized ID cards to all those who had submitted forms in Feb 2000, and retention of social studies and Islamyat as part of curriculum.