Darjeeling, Feb. 24: The Darjeeling
municipality has received an initial payment of Rs 21 lakh from the
state government which took over the country’s oldest hydel project from
the civic authority 36 years ago.
The sum of Rs 21
lakh is not a big sum when compared to the estimated cost of the
Sidrapong hydel project in 2006-07 which was Rs 8 crore. But the gesture
of the government proves that it has agreed that the civic body should
be paid for the project.
The Sidrapong
project was acquired by the West Bengal State Electricity Board on
January 30, 1978, as part of the government’s effort to bring power
generation and distribution under one head.
Darjeeling
municipality chairman Amar Singh Rai said he had received an “ad hoc
compensation” of Rs 21 lakh from power minister Manish Gupta in Calcutta
a few weeks back.
“Since 1978, successive municipal boards had pursued the state for the money, but to no avail,” Rai said.
Rai had approached Mamata Banerjee for the money during her visit here in January.
“She told me to
forget about the amount and said it was a very old issue. I had,
however, taken all relevant documents to prove our point. Soon after she
returned to Calcutta, Gupta called me up and asked me to collect the
cheque. The government has acknowledged that it needs to compensate for
the project.”
“Gupta has said the remaining portion of the compensation will have to be worked out,” Rai added.
A senior power
department official said in Calcutta today that the rest of the amount
would be released in three or four tranches. “The chief minister has
instructed us to ensure the release, after this was pointed out to her
by the municipality,” said the official.
Sources in the
municipality said the value of the project was worked out to be Rs 2
crore in 1978. “The Darjeeling municipality owed the power department a
sum of Rs 45 lakh in 1978. Ideally, this amount should have been
deducted and the rest of the amount should have been handed over to the
civic body then,” said a source.
Taking into
account appreciation and escalation of prices, the civic board had
pegged the value of the hydel project at Rs 8 crore in 2006-07.
The Sidrapong
hydel project, situated about 12km from Darjeeling, and in the foothills
of Arya tea garden was commissioned on November 10, 1897 by Charles
Cecil Stevens, the then acting lieutenant-governor of Bengal. The
project was the first power utility run on commercial basis for use of
general public in India.(TT)