The Hindu : National : Inter-linking of rivers only through consensus, says Soz

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 26, 2006

National

National

Inter-linking of rivers only through consensus, says Soz

Special Correspondent

"Precious resource like water has to be shared by everyone"

— Photo: Anu Pushkarna

Union Minister for Water Resources Saifuddin Soz at the General Meeting of National Water Development Agency Society in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz has stressed the need for a broad understanding and consensus for tackling water related problems including the inter-linking of rivers.

During the 22nd annual general meeting of the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), Mr. Soz told irrigation representatives from various States that the country was "one" and the precious natural resource like water had to be shared for the benefit of everyone.

He recalled the signing of the historic tripartite Memorandum of Understanding between the Water Resources Ministry, the States of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the presence of the Prime Minister last August for preparation of a Detailed Project Report. The NWDA is involved in making feasibility reports on the 30 proposed links under the inter-linking of rivers programme.

Underscoring the need for arriving at a similar understanding between various States for prioritising river links, Mr Soz said the country had to move from "divergence" to "convergence" for achieving results. Fourteen links of peninsular component had been placed on the official website of the NWDA and efforts would be made to place these reports in regional languages soon. The Minister also emphasised the need to involve NGOs in spreading the message for water conservation.

For this a massive campaign would be launched and village elders would be involved.

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