& 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

India's River-linking Project

Govt told to go ahead

Star Report
India's Supreme Court yesterday dismissed the government's plea seeking a review of its directive to the government to implement the controversial interlinking of rivers project in a time-bound manner.
The court's order came amid protests by Bangladeshi environmentalists as the scheme aims to link 30 major
SEE PAGE 19 COL 4 FROM PAGE 1
rivers and will involve diverting the Ganges and the Brahmaputra - two of the biggest international rivers in the region.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia refused to have a look at its February 27 judgement again directing the government to constitute a committee for interlinking of rivers, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
"We have gone through the review petition and the relevant documents. There is delay in filing the review petition. In our opinion, no case for review of our order is made out both on the grounds of delay as well as on merits and, accordingly, the review petition is dismissed," the bench said in its order.
The court in its February judgement had directed the Indian government to appoint a high-powered committee comprising representatives of various government departments, ministries, experts and social activists to chart out and execute the project.
The dismissal of the Indian government's plea for reviewing the order has raised concerns in Bangladesh.
Earlier, Bangladesh said diversion of water from these rivers would harm its interests, while environmentalists warned that the project would cause an ecological disaster.
The northern part of Bangladesh has already turned into a kind of desert by the impact of the Farakka Barrage and the country is still bearing the brunt of water diversion from the Ganges and the Teesta.
But India says it must enhance its irrigation potentials to meet the demand for grain to feed an estimated population of 1.5 billion by 2050.
The river interlinking project requires construction of large dams within India, Nepal and Bhutan upon a reaching of international agreements between these countries.
The scheme was the brainchild of the BJP-led NDA government. In October 2002, the then premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee had formed a task force to get the project going against the backdrop of acute drought that year.
Meanwhile, the Hindu in June reported citing claims by the Madhya Pradesh government to have launched the country's first ever river-lake linking project in the water-scarce Bundelkhand region.