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Panel tells Centre to speed up river projects

Gargi Parsai

Enactment of law suggested

NEW DELHI: Disappointed at the slow pace of progress of the Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILR) programme, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources has asked the government to seek legal opinion on strengthening Central water laws for better implementation.

Referring to the inter-State water disputes and the “consultative” approach of the Union Water Resources Ministry on the rivers linking programme, the committee, in its 14th report, “regretted to observe” that despite several cases of dispute among the States, the government has preferred to pursue the ILR programme only in a consultative manner through the ‘Consensus Group’ formed for the purpose.

“The Consensus Group has further failed to bring about any radical shift in the thought process of the States,” the panel noted.

“Disheartened”

The Committee, chaired by Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, expressed its unhappiness at the response of the Ministry wherein it said that the government had no proposal to amend the Constitution to empower the Central government for implementation of water projects. They were further “disheartened” with the Ministry’s stand that “unless it came as a recommendation from the Centre-State Relations Commission, such a proposal could not be considered.”

Instead of waiting for a recommendation by the Commission to that effect, the committee suggested that the government obtain the opinion or advice of the Ministry of Law on the enactment of such a law as may not impinge on the powers of the State governments but would speed up implementation of inter-State water projects under the rivers linking programme.

Ken-Betwa link

After evincing the views of experts, professionals and NGOs, the committee recommended that while most were for the ILR, there were some views that suggested that people should be made aware of the costs and benefits of a project. There were also apprehensions about the rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced people. For this, the panel expressed the hope that “all apprehensions” would be addressed for the first Ken-Betwa link, for which the Detailed Project Report (DPR) was under preparation. The DPR for the Ken-Betwa link between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh is expected to be ready by December 2008.

The Ministry informed the committee that it had received alternative proposals to ILR from NGOs and other experts but all of them were rejected as they were technically unsound.

However, after discussing the issue with outside experts and NGOs, the committee asked the Ministry to “re-look at the suggestions with an open mind.”

Referring to the apprehension expressed by a few State governments on inequitable distribution of water/benefits from the rivers interlinking programme, the committee said that the Bihar government had identified intra-State river links and suggested that consultancy firms should be engaged for preparation of DPRs. The Orissa government pointed to the absence of a legal framework on ILR at the Central government level.

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