A meeting organised at New Delhi on Friday to elicit views of States on the interlinking of rivers has observed that demand management would become key in future rather than supply management and it has to be looked into seriously by the National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA).
Giving views of Telangana, Engineer-in-Chief (Irrigation) B. Hariram suggested firming-up of water availability at locations of origination of links involving the donor States and also bring consensus among the participating States. He brought to the meeting’s notice that Telangana government had submitted detailed project reports (DPRs) of six projects in the Godavari Basin to establish its rights and the Ministry of Jal Shakti was yet to approve them.
Karnataka was of the view that the benefits of Godavari-Cauvery link have to be given to it in the first phase and the DPR prepared already has to be revised. Tamil Nadu wanted time-bound implementation of the Godavari-Cauvery link with allotment of more water to it by taking up canals at higher contours.
Director General of NWDA Bhupal Singh gave a presentation on the progress of a few projects of interlinking of rivers and sought advice from the members on other links proposed. Special invitee A.D. Mohile said consensus among State has to be addressed seriously to push the interlinking of rivers project further.
Earlier, Union Minister for Jal Shakti (MoJS) Gajendra Singh Shekhawat stated that it was time for making tough decisions with regard to interlinking of rivers in the country as its future is dependent on the development of water sector.
Speaking at the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), he said some areas in the country were facing acute scarcity of water, while some other areas were facing heavy floods every year. Stating that there were many difficulties in implementing the interlinking of rivers in the country, Mr. Shekhawat asked the delegates of States to express their views in a national perspective and not in the regional and political perspective.
Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel, Secretary MoJS Pankaj Kumar and others participating in the meeting including Officer on Special Duty (Irrigation) to Chief Minister Sridhar Rao Deshpande on behalf of Telangana.
