Ranchi, May 29: Union water resources minister Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav has pulled up the Jharkhand government for inordinate delays in beginning work on six irrigation projects leading to a cost escalation of at least Rs 52,500 crore.

Yadav, who recently reviewed the implementation of the projects sanctioned by the Centre during the 5th Five-Year Plan (1976-80), argued that the delays meant the people of the state were being denied the benefits of the project.

Yadav pointed out that in 1976, the Centre had okayed the construction of a barrage across the Gumani river in Sahebganj district at an initial outlay of Rs 3.83 crore. The project was to irrigate more than 38,000 hectares of the region. “By 2004, the project costs had escalated to Rs 162.59 crore. The date of completion has now been fixed at December 2009,” he said.

The Centre had also cleared a project to construct a dam across the Kansjore river in Simdega and also build canals on the left and right banks. The initial project cost was pegged at Rs 8.66 crore.

Though construction of the left bank canal was nearly completed, the cost of the project had now gone up to Rs 52,973 crore. Yadav clarified that as per an MoU with the state, the project was due to be ready in the current fiscal.

Similar is the case with the Sonua barrage under construction across the Ajay river in West Singhbhum district. Work started in 1982 with an initial cost of Rs 8.92 crore. The cost of the project — incomplete even after 26 years — has now risen to Rs 81.49 crore.

Citing other examples, Yadav pointed out that construction of a dam across the Panchkhero river, bordering Koderma and Giridih districts, that started in 1986, was still incomplete. The Surangi canal scheme, launched in 1987, which was expected to irrigate 2,100 hectares, was still incomplete. Even the Upper Sankh dam, under construction across the Sankh river in Gumla, was incomplete after more than two decades.

Yadav also criticised the state government for doing nothing on soil eroison of the Ganga in Sahebganj. Despite several survey reports based on which the Centre had sanctioned Rs 63 lakh, the state was sitting on its assent.

State water resources minister Kamlesh Kumar Singh defended his government by pleading that the delays were all “inherited” from the previous NDA regimes. He said that the government was committed to ensuring that all pending projects were completed within a new timeframe.