Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti’s stand that any delay in implementing the Ken–Betwa river linking project (in Uttar Pradesh and her home State of Madhya Pradesh) will tantamount to “committing a national crime” has now given ammunition to the Congress government in Karnataka which has urged her to adopt a similar stand on the Kalasa–Banduri Nala project too.
“Any delay in clearing the Mahadayi project [of which Kalasa–Banduri Nala project is part] too will tantamount to committing a national crime,” Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H.K. Patil said in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday. He said Karnataka’s Kalasa–Banduri Nala, proposed to be taken up under the Mahadayi project, too was a river-linking project like the Ken–Betwa project as it seeks to link the Mahadayi with the Malaprabha. He pointed out that Ken–Betwa project was feared to affect tiger habitat, whereas the Kalasa–Banduri Nala project would pass through patches of pristine forests.