Hyderabad: The Telangana state government on Monday opposed the Centre’s ambitious programme of inter-linking Godavari and Cauvery rivers. The Centre held a high-level meeting in Delhi, chaired by the Union water resources minister Mr. Nitin Gadkari, to take the Godavari-Cauvery inter-linking proposal forward. TS irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, his counterparts from AP, Karnataka and Uttarakhand, Devineni Uma Maheshwar Rao, D.K. Shiv Kumar and Satpal Maharaj, respectively, were invited for the meet.
However, Mr Harish Rao demanded that the Centre allocate the justified water share in the Godavari to TS first before proceeding with the inter-linking proposal. Mr Rao also strongly opposed the preparation of a detailed project report for interlinking the rivers without holding consultations with the states to achieve consensus and without giving hydrology clearance for Telagnana irrigation projects.
Mr Rao said TS needed 954 tmcft in the Godavari to meet its present and future requirements and the Telangana government would support the inter-linking only if surplus water was available after this quota had been allotted. He made it clear that the Telangana government would have no objection if the Centre diverted the surplus water available in the Godavari after the requirements of TS were met for all existing, under-construction and new projects.
Mr Gadkari chaired the 32nd Annual General Meeting of the National Water Development Agency and the 15th meeting of the Special Committee held for the interlinking of rivers. He stressed the need to develop a consensus on interlinking of rivers among the states concerned, so that the unutilised water draining into the sea could be used for the needy areas. He called upon states to discuss and sort out issues through active consultation.
Reiterating that the inter-linking of rivers was very important for enhancing water and food security of the country and essential for providing water to drought prone areas, Mr Gadkari said that steps had been taken for the early implementation of five inter-linking projects and the Memorandum of Agreement was being finalised in consultation with the state governments concerned.
These five projects include Ken-Betwa link project, Damanganga-Pinjal link project, Par-Tapi-Narmada link project, Godavari-Cauvery (Grand Anicut) link project and Parvati-Kali Sindhu-Chambal link. The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has so far received 47 proposals of intra-state links from 9 states viz. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh. He said the successful completion of these projects would lead to reduction of disaster during floods, improved irrigation facilities, employment generation in rural agriculture, and increase in exports and decrease in migration from villages.
