Water: PR Dasmunshi says river linking project will be reviewed

News from The Hindu

• River-linking project to be reviewed.
• "The country needs water augmentation on an aggressive scale, but certainly not at the cost of human problems and adding injury to human habitation. We must find a collective and harmonious approach to the whole issue rather than an approach of confrontation", says the Minister.
• Major pending issues are: Cauveri water dispute, the Sardar Sarovar project and the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal.

It would be interesting to note what this Government's views are on the river-linking project and whether or not, the task force on linking of rivers will be totally scrapped. Surely there should be several localised micro-irrigation possibilities. At least, at a smaller scale, the Government may look at building a cooperative venture between Kerala and Tamil Nadu (say). Kerala keeps accusing Tamil Nadu of trying to steal Kerala's water (or already stealing Kerala's water). But most of Kerala's water goes waste. A green Kerala, however continues to depend on agricultural produce from a dry Tamil Nadu for its food needs.