Centre according priority to inter-linking of rivers:Yadav

Puducherry, Nov 2 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Water Resources Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav today said the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre was according utmost priority to the inter-linking of rivers in the country.

Delivering the validictory address at the 12th National Water Convention here, Mr Yadav stressed the urgent need to follow a holistic approach for water resources development within a basin to overcome flood situation in monsoon period and drought during the lean period, since river basins at some places were water surplus while at other places they were deficient.

''Even though our country is richly endowed with water resources, we have not been able to exploit this tremendous natural wealth to the best advantage of the people because of temporal and spatial variation of rainfall in the country,'' he added.

Stating that all possible measures should be taken to conserve water, including adoption of scientific water management techniques to maximize the quantum of available usable water, he said and added that the imbalance in the availability of water resources in various regions of the country warrants to consider largescale inter-basin transfer to be one of the practical solutions to overcome such imbalances.

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