The Hindu : National : Move to wind up Task Force on linking of rivers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 13, 2004

National

National

Move to wind up Task Force on linking of rivers

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, JULY 12. T he Government is seriously thinking of winding up the Task Force on Interlinking of Rivers. The recommendation of the Water Resources Ministry awaits the final nod from the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

The Task Force was set up on the orders of the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who handpicked the former Shiv Sena Minister, Suresh Prabhu, to chair it and gave him a Cabinet Minister's rank. Mr. Prabhu demitted office on the eve of the elections. Since then, the Task Force has been in a limbo, though it submitted its second Action Plan in April.

The decision to scrap the Task Force is in line with the United Progressive Alliance Government's position in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) for a comprehensive review of the "feasibility" of the previous Government's river linking project. While the Task Force had suggested the linking of 30 rivers starting with two rivers in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the CMP suggests inter-linking from south-bound rivers in the Peninsular component.

Besides, now it is felt that the Task Force had fulfilled its task of submitting two Action Plans, which drew a road map for implementing the programme, including raising of funds and cost recovery.

The programme was controversial from the time it was conceived because of lack of people's participation, the resistance from a majority of the States to the idea and the hurry with which it was sought to be implemented. Several States had questioned the technical data of water flows and other parameters worked out about two decades ago by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) under the Ministry of Water Resources.

There was also a battle for the turf between the high-profile Suresh Prabhu and the Ministry of Water Resources, then headed by Arjun Charan Sethi. The Task Force did not have a separate budget and that was another sore point till an allocation of up to Rs. 5 crores was made.

Mr. Prabhu appointed some high profile resource persons and resource institutions to give recommendations on the costs and benefits and environmental and social aspects. The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, was roped in to suggest organisational and institutional structure for implementing the programme.

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