At last UPA for Indian river link

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At last UPA for river link

By Arabinda Ghose

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THE malicious propaganda launched by a section of the media against

the Inter-linking of Rivers scheme saying that the United Progressive

Alliance (UPA) government would abandon it since it was an `NDA

baggage' has been debunked by the Government itself.

 

Appearing before the Supreme Court on August 30, Solicitor General

G.E. Vahanvati said that the Centre had in principle decided not to go

back on the project. However he pointed out that the matter would be

placed before the Union Cabinet for a comprehen-sive review in September.

 

The bench consisting of Justices Y.K. Sabharwal, D.M. Dharmadhikari

and P.B. Naolekar, allowed the government six weeks' time to inform

the court about the project.

 

Amicus curiae Ranjit Kumar and Nikhil Nayar told the court that a Task

Force constituted by the government was now without a chairman since

the incumbent, Shri Suresh Prabhu, had resigned with effect from March

31, 2004. This has caused the entire project to be stalled.

 

The Centre's assurance has raised new hopes among those who had

welcomed the initiatives taken by the Vajpayee government in

re-vitalising the scheme, first initiated in 1980-82 by the Indira

Gandhi government as the only remedy for breaking the syndrome of

flood and droughts simultaneously in various parts of the country.

 

Even this year, the country witnessed unprecedented floods in Assam

and north Bihar, while large regions in the country continued to be

ravaged by drought. In the first week of September, when fresh floods

in Bihar have washed away hundreds of villages north-western India as

also Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu continue to reel under the impact

of drought in many districts.

 

The UPA government had not been explicit so far about its attitude on

the project. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the

drought-affected areas of Andhra Pradesh where "for miles" he did not

come across any water. At the same time in Assam and north Bihar he

saw miles and miles under water during his visits there. Yet, no word

has come from him about the inter-linking scheme.

 

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram floated a new scheme called the

National Water Resources Development Project for renovating and

repairing lakhs of water bodies in the country—another `dream' of his

`dream Budget'—without actually making any budgetary provision for it.

He, however, had kept quiet about the inter-linking project.

 

However, one must admit that he had actually allocated more funds to

the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) this year than in the

previous year—Rs 30 crore instead of Rs 20 crore in the previous year.

It is the NWDA that is conducting surveys and preparing feasibility

reports on the 30 inter-river links proposed under the scheme and the

Task Force expenditure is met by the NWDA.

 

Shri Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, who is the Union Minister of Water

Resources, perhaps wisely has kept his mouth shut on this issue so

far. In any case, he was busy with the Olympic Games since he is

president of the All India Football Federation.

 

The most amusing aspect of the entire episode is that the UPA

government did not bother to update the Annual Report of the Ministry

of Water Resources for 2003-2004, which shows that the inter-linking

project was very much in vogue. The map showing the proposed links too

appear in this report.

 

The report says that Shri Arjun Charan Sethi (of the Biju Janata Dal)

is still the Minister of Water Resources and Smt. Bijoya Chakravarty

of the BJP is still the Minister of State for Water Resources. The

report, obviously ready before the NDA government had bowed out of

power, was however released for the media only during the last week of

August.

 

However, the report contains a four-line `footnote' on page 19 saying:

"The UPA government, in its Common Minimum Programme has indicated

that a comprehensive assessment of the feasibility of the project of

inter-linking of the rivers of the country, starting with the

southern/peninsular rivers, will be carried out. This assessment will

be done in a fully consultative manner and the possibility of linking

sub-basins/basins of some rivers in states like Bihar will also be

explored."

 

Although the UPA government, obviously under pressure from Lalu Prasad

and the Left, who are opposed to the scheme, has refrained from making

its stand public on the inter-linking scheme, it should now feel

relieved that the Supreme Court has stepped in once again to make the

government undertake the scheme.

 

One must recall that it was the Supreme Court which had made the NDA

government take up the project, set up the Task Force, and draw up a

time-table for completing the inter-linking project by December 31,

2016. The change in government does not change the pledge made to the

highest court in the country, and the Manmohan Singh government may

face a contempt of court charge if it abandons the scheme.

 

Besides, the Standing Committee of Parliament for the Ministry of

Water Resources has come out with open support for the scheme. The

Committee is represented by members of all parties and its decisions

are unanimous, as in the case of most Parliamentary Committees. With

such a massive support for the scheme, one feels that the government

would re-activate the hibernating Task Force, maybe by appointing a

new Chairman and Secretary-General, but it must continue with the

project, no matter who opposes it.