Soz denies shelving of project to link major rivers

Hyderabad, Oct 19 (UNI) The Centre has not shelved the project to link major rivers in the country costing over Rs 6,00,000 crore, Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz today said.

Given the inter-state riparian rows in the country, the Centre was for facilitating the linking of two rivers to start with. Mr Soz, who was here to inaugurate the Krishna-Godavari Basin of the Central Water Commission, told reporters..

The first inter-basin linkage would be between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh at Ken Betwa, he said.

Referring to riparian disputes among states, including the Mullaiperiyar issue between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he said there were many practical problems.

The Centre was for the promotion of inter-basin transfers from one river to another wherever there was an agreement between states, before all the rivers could be inter-linked, he added.

The task force on interlinking of rivers constituted by the previous NDA Government had submitted 16 feasibility reports. But the Detailed Project Report(DPR) had been prepared only for one project, he said.

The Centre was for putting the river waters to best use and planned to provide irrigation water to 2.5 crore acres under the 'Bharat Nirman' programme, he added.

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