TS for firming up of water availability for river interlinking

Meeting to elicit views of States on interlinking of rivers

A meeting organised at New Delhi on Friday to elicit views of States on the interlinking of rivers has observed that demand management would become key in future rather than supply management and it has to be looked into seriously by the National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA).

Giving views of Telangana, Engineer-in-Chief (Irrigation) B. Hariram suggested firming-up of water availability at locations of origination of links involving the donor States and also bring consensus among the participating States. He brought to the meeting’s notice that Telangana government had submitted detailed project reports (DPRs) of six projects in the Godavari Basin to establish its rights and the Ministry of Jal Shakti was yet to approve them.

Karnataka was of the view that the benefits of Godavari-Cauvery link have to be given to it in the first phase and the DPR prepared already has to be revised. Tamil Nadu wanted time-bound implementation of the Godavari-Cauvery link with allotment of more water to it by taking up canals at higher contours.