SC grants 4 weeks time to govt to file report on river networking

New Delhi, Jan 22 (UNI) The Supreme Court today granted four weeks time to the Union government to file its status report on the issue of networking of rivers in the country to facilitate the availability of drinking water as well as for irrigation purposes in areas facing the problem of water scarcity.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice D K Jain acceeded to the request of the Solicitor General for more time on the grounds that the government was in the process of finalising a policy on the issue, in consultation with the states.

The court is considering the issue of ensuring equitable distribution of water in the country so that even drought prone areas may be supplied augmented quantity of water to overcome the problem of drought.

The programme, when implemented, will also help checkmating the havoc and devastation caused by floods in flood prone areas by diverting the water to scarcity hit areas.

UNI