NEW DELHI: Delayed for long due to differences among states and other issues, the interlinking of rivers has got a renewed commitment in the Union Budget despite warnings from experts about its grave consequences.
During the Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Ken-Batwa river interlinking project will be taken up at a cost of Rs 46,000 crore. The project will provide water to 9.05 lakh hectares of agricultural land and 65 lakh people. The Cabinet had approved the project last year. A provision of Rs 1,400 crore has been made for the project in the 2022-23 fiscal.
The minister said five other river-interlinking projects have been finalised. These include the Daman-Ganga Pinjar, Par Tapi-Narmada, Krishna-Godavari, Krishna-Pennar and Pennar-Cauvery. These projects have been under discussion for long and the minister said once a consensus is reached among the beneficiary states, the Centre will support the implementation.
The river-linking announcement has invited some critical comments. “On the one hand, the Budget talks of climate action and protecting the environment. On the other, it pushes ecologically disastrous river-interlinking projects. Rhetoric sounds nice but actions matter more. On that front, the Modi government is on a destructive path,” tweeted former Union minister and Congress MP Jairam Ramesh.
Experts also expressed concern over the announcement. Dr Anjal Prakash, lead author of the chapter on cities, settlements, and critical infrastructure and a cross-chapter paper on mountains as part of IPCC’s 6th assessment cycle, said this would be an environmental disaster and not a piece of good news for climate action.
“The major miss is focusing on the river linking project and budget allocations. Each river originates and flows in particular ecological conditions. Rather than helping to fix the ecological balance of the watershed where the river starts and flows, the focus is on the linking of rivers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the central government’s flagship scheme ‘Har Ghar Jal’ has been allocated Rs 60,000 crore for providing piped drinking water to 3.8 crore people. The current coverage of Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal is 8.7 crore, out of which 5.5 crore households have been provided tap water in the last two years and 3.8 crore will get piped connection in 2022-23.
5 OTHER PROJECTS
Five other river-interlinking projects have been finalised. These include the Daman-Ganga Pinjar, Par Tapi-Narmada, Krishna-Godavari, Krishna-Pennar and Pennar-Cauvery. These have been under discussion for long