Criticising the Supreme Court directive to the Centre to implement the rivers inter-linking project, several concerned citizens have pointed out that the apex court was getting into the domain of the executive in the matter. They urged the court to put its order on hold and undertake careful reconsideration of the entire matter which is controversial and has serious implications.
Seeking a review of the order, the citizens said the controversial project, with serious international ramifications, had not even gone through the processes of examination, evaluation and approval and was “not implementable.”
Only three of the 30 proposed links had reached the detailed project report stage in the last several decades and those too were not final, they said in a ‘public' statement issued here on Thursday.
“The project not only holds the potential of generating new inter-State conflicts but has serious international dimensions that need to be considered. Both, Nepal and Bangladesh, have expressed serious apprehensions about India's rivers linking project,” they said. The signatories include the former Water Resources Secretary Ramaswamy Iyer, the former Planning Commission member A. Vaidyanathan, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, the former Union Secretary, E.A.S. Sarma, journalists Kuldip Nayar, Darryl D'Monte and Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.
“By declaring the project in ‘national interest,' the apex court not only anticipates the result of examination that is yet to take place, but also makes it difficult for the government to undertake a rigorous and objective examination [of the project],'' they said and added that by referring to a ‘unanimous view of all experts,' the court ignored a ‘substantial body of experts' that was highly critical of the project.
The court failed to take note of or treated lightly, the strong dissent on the part of several State governments, the statement said.
Instead of starting from identification of needs of water scarce areas and finding area-specific answers, the project was “reckless, major re-designing of the geography of the country.”
The grand design of 30 links involving construction of over 80 dams is bound to have major environmental and ecological consequences not to speak of immense hardship to people who will be displaced as a result. This cannot be ignored and pushed through, the citizens said.
The Supreme Court on March 27 directed the Centre to implement the project in a time-bound manner and appointed a ‘special committee' to work out the modalities and oversee implementation.
