States should understand and accept the final award given on inter-State water disputes, no matter what it is. Otherwise, it would not be good for democratic governance, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu said on Saturday.
Answering a query from the audience on water scarcity, he said there was no shortage of rain, or for that matter, water in the country, and that the problem lay in the inability to conserve water.
“Rivers in India should be connected. The government should do this on a priority basis and see to it that some agreement is there. We need to preserve our traditional ponds and use rain water harvesting, desilting and other methods to save water. Otherwise, we would be left with the costly option of desalination,” Mr. Naidu said.
He was delivering a special address on the topic of urban-rural divide at an event organised by the Chennai International Centre, a think-tank, on its second anniversary.
Mr. Naidu also said a loan waiver was not a solution to the woes of the farming sector, and long-term sustainable policies were needed. In his address, he said even as India transited from a developing to a developed nation, one of the major problems the country had to address was the urban-rural divide. “This gap, if not bridged, can hamper the country’s progress,” he said.
He also said freebies were not the solution to bridge this gap and called for realistic long-term policies. Mr. Naidu pointed out that poverty, illiteracy, caste and gender discrimination, black money and corruption were the key challenges which needed to be addressed.
“The urban-rural divide is not desirable and has to be bridged by a careful, coordinated and concerted effort by policy-makers, the bureaucracy, think-tanks, civil society and private organisations. We, the people of India, have successfully overcome many challenges, and this [problem] could also be addressed successfully with political will and administrative skill,” he said.
