& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

River-linking needs int'l agreements

Says Indian high official

Our Correspondent, New Delhi
India's Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia yesterday said a variety of environmental, economic and technical issues need to be settled before implementation of the ambitious interlinking of rivers.
Referring to the Himalayan component of rivers inter-linking, Ahluwalia said “effective exploitation” of capacity of these rivers is critically dependent on the international agreements.
“It is not a decision India can take alone,” he said while speaking at a technical session of India Water Week inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the morning.
Ahluwalia's remarks came a day after Indian Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal sought to address Bangladesh's concerns over inter-linking of rivers by saying the work on proposed linking of rivers in the Himalayan component, particularly connecting the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, has been put on the backburner.
Referring to environmental issues, Ahluwalia said any large-scale diversion of water will require environmental impact surveys.
Pointing to certain studies, the planning commission deputy chairman said interference with the natural flow of a river is not a good idea and any diversion, which leads to reduction in flow of water into the Bay of Bengal, will alter the layers of salinity in that part of the ocean.
Ahluwalia explained, “...upper layers have lower salinity...if that is altered beyond a certain point, it will alter the build-up of heat in Bay of Bengal which could seriously disrupt the monsooncycle.”
On the economic aspects of inter-linking, he said if rivers from north and east are connected, then enormous amount of power will be used to pump water upto the Deccan Plateau.
“That will introduce additional element of cost surplus in some places,” he said.
He also observed that some Indian states are reluctant to agree that they have surplus water, and said water that was surplus in 1950 may not be surplus today when its usage has increased manifold.
There were 30 possible links that were identified. Out of those, 16 are in the Himalayan component and 14 in the peninsular component.
While hoping that the proposed committee under the Water Resources Ministry will strive hard to work on the issues, Ahluwalia said various issues need to be addressed for the proposed interlinking.