Modi govt serious about river linking

Reflecting India's Hindu nationalist BJP-led government's seriousness to pursue the ambitious river interlinking project, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday called for a serious effort in this regard and allocated Rs100 crore in his maiden budget to expedite preparations for the Detailed Project Report.
In his budget speech in the Lok Sabha, he noted the interlinking of rivers can pay “rich dividends” and pointed out that rivers form the lifeline for the country as they provide water not only for producing food for the multitudes but also drinking water.
“Unfortunately, the country is not uniformly blessed with perennial rivers. Therefore, an effort to link the rivers can give rich dividends to the country,” he said.
“It is time that we make a serious effort to move in this direction. To expedite the preparation for the Detailed Project Report, I propose setting aside a sum of Rs100 crore,” he added.
The idea of river interlinking had received an impetus during the previous NDA regime (1999-2004) as the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had pushed for the interlinking projects.
The Ministry of Water Resources had formulated a National Perspective Plan for water resources development in 1980, envisaging inter-basin transfer of water from surplus basins to deficit basins.
These are areas which comprise two components -- Himalayan Rivers Development Component and Peninsular Rivers Development Component.
The National Water Development Agency has already identified 14 links under the Himalayan Rivers Development Component and 16 links under the Peninsular Rivers Development Component.
Five Peninsular links -- Ken-Betwa, Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal, Damanganga-Pinjal, Par-Tapi-Narmada and Godavari (Polavaram)-Krishna (Vijayawada) -- have been identified as priority links for taking up their detailed project report.
The UPA government had said river interlinking in Himalayan Component was not practical.