The fate of the Ravi-Tawi canal project is still hanging in balance as the Cabinet did not give administrative approval to the project today. The state Finance Ministry demanded an expert opinion from the Solicitor General of India and the Attorney General of India before work is started on the project. It was a dream project of Public Health Engineering Minister Taj Mohiuddin and he was expecting administrative approval to the project during the meeting. However, new queries raised by the Finance Ministry, headed by Abdul Rahim Rather, could further delay the project. The Cabinet had in February 2010 accorded an approval to the construction of a canal from Basantpur to upstream of Ranjit Sagar Dam near Satwain village falling in Kathua district. The proposed canal was to be constructed from the Satwain side of the reservoir without help from Punjab, which has denied the state its water share since 1979, when the dam was constructed. The Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today, sanctioned creation of 322 posts of Dental Assistant in the Health Department and the roll-out of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), a poverty eradication programme through the J&K State Rural Livelihood Society. The NRLM is a universal social mobilisation programme under which at least one member from each rural, poor and vulnerable household, preferably women, will be brought within the net of self help groups in a time-bound manner. The scheme will facilitate creation of a platform and provide continuous capacity building support. “The mission aims at reducing poverty in rural areas by building strong grassroots institutions for the poor, engage them into gainful livelihood intervention and ensure appreciable improvement in their income on a sustainable basis,” a statement said. The expenses for the mission will be shared by the Centre and the state initially in the ratio of 75:25.