Chinese plan on Brahmaputra not as alarming as it sounds : Minister

New Delhi, Dec 15 (UNI) Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz today attempted to soft pedal the issue of China's attempts to build a massive reservoir in Tibet and divert the water of the Brahmaputra to the Yellow river by saying ''the issue was not as alarming as it sounds.'' ''The issue is being dealt by the Ministry of External Affairs ...

the government actively seized on the matter and I can't possibly reveal more,'' Prof Soz said.

Sources in the Water Ministry said China had offered to provide data on the flow of Brahmaputra by setting up three measuring stations to India, ahead of the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao last month.

Asked if this would affect the Indian plans to link its major rivers, Prof Soz said he did not think so China plans to divert the river water just before the 'great bend' of the Brahmaputra before it entered Indian terriroty at Arunachal Pradesh.

However sources said that the government had come to know that the Chinese plan was to set up a 40 MW hydel power plant and not a 40,000 MW power plant as reported by the international media.

''We don't merely go by media reports. We have gone beyond Google,'' the sources remarked.

Prof Soz said under the circumstances linking of rivers in the peninsular India was more practical as it involved no international Rivers. The Government was in the process of preparing a list of national rivers and the selection would be made by the Cabinet.

Water is essentially a state subject and the government was working out the details for classifying a river as national based upon a 'scientific criteria', they said.

The Minister asserted that the UPA Government had not dumped the Inter-Linking of Rivers and said it was neither given up nor put on the back burner. ''Go ahead had been given for Detailed Project Report on Ken-Betwa and Parbati-Kali Sindh projects in Madhya Pradesh. Authorities have been asked to submit the DPRs in two years instead of three years,'' he said.

On the Baglihar dispute with Pakistan, which is currently before the World Bank appointed 'Neutral Expert' for arbitration, the Minister said he could only say that the matter was defended by the best legal and technical brains of the country and he was satisfied with the efforts.

''I have not bothered to look beyond what I am supposed to know,'' he said, adding that the Indus Water Treaty signed between the two countries was very much in operation.

Touching upon the issue of depletion of groundwater level in Palakkad, Kerala, following the setting up of a cold drink factory by an MNC, Prof Soz said the government had got a survey done and found that there was no depletion of groundwater in the surrounding areas.

''The MNC may have caused so many other damages but here in this case, they can't possibly be faulted,'' he said.

UNI MCN YA HT1905