What is the ERCP, the Rajasthan rivers project that CM Gehlot has urged PM Modi to decide on?

Gehlot added that although 50 roads in Rajasthan had been approved for upgradation to National Highways, there had been no Gazette Notification yet. “I hope the other pending works are completed soon too,” he said.

Assembly elections in Rajasthan are due at the end of this year. The Rajasthan government has announced an allocation of Rs 13,000 crore for the ERCP in the state Budget presented on Friday.

What is the aim of the ERCP?

The Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project aims to harvest surplus water available during the rainy season in rivers in southern Rajasthan, such as the Chambal and its tributaries Kunnu, Parvati, and Kalisindh, and use it in the water-scarce south-eastern districts of the state.

According to the state Water Resources Department, Rajasthan’s geographical area of 342.52 lakh hectares equals 10.4 per cent of the entire country but holds only 1.16 per cent of India’s surface water and 1.72 per cent of groundwater.

Among the state’s water bodies, only the Chambal river basin has surplus water, but this water cannot be tapped directly because the area around the Kota barrage is designated as a crocodile sanctuary.

Through the help of diversion structures, intra-basin water transfers, linking channels, and building pumping main feeder channels, the ERCP aims to create a network of water channels that will cover 23.67 per cent of the area and 41.13 per cent of the population of the state.

When was the ERCP conceived, and what areas are covered under it?

In the state Budget for 2017-18, the then Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government had said that the ERCP will help fulfil the long-term irrigation and drinking water needs of 13 districts: Jhalawar, Baran, Kota, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Tonk, Jaipur, Karauli, Alwar, Bharatpur, Dausa, and Dholpur.

The project was approved by the Central Water Commission in 2017. Raje had also said that the state government had sent a proposal to the central government to declare ERCP as a project having national importance. This demand has since been made repeatedly by the Congress government that came to power in the state. Chief Minister Gehlot has written letters in this regard to Prime Minister Modi, and also highlighted this during the Prime Minister’s interaction with Chief Ministers in NITI Aayog meetings.

What is the idea behind declaring ERCP a ‘national importance’ project?

The Chief Minister has said that it is not possible for the state government to bear the estimated project cost of around Rs 40,000 crore by itself.

“Work on ERCP has been started in Kota district. This bit of the project is worth around Rs 600-650 crore. At present, the state is bearing all the costs. The state wants the Centre to declare this as a national project so that the cost-sharing ratio between the Centre and the state becomes 90:10, with the central government bearing 90 per cent of the cost,” Ravi Solanki, Chief Engineer, Rajasthan Water Resources Planning Department, had told The Indian Express in March 2021.

So what is the current status of the project?

The Jal Shakti Ministry of the central government sent a notice to the Rajasthan government in July 2022, saying that projects under the ERCP must be put on hold till the “inter-state issues are resolved and the project is accorded approval by the advisory committee”. The letter to the Rajasthan Chief Secretary added that the appraisal of the project was held up due to objections by BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, the co-basin state of the Chambal river.

Gehlot had then said that the “water is the state’s, the catchment area is ours…we are employing our resources and the state is ready to give Rs 9,600 crores (for the project) – who are you to tell us to stop the project? I want to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi why has your government’s ministry written to us? Water is a state subject, not a Central subject.”

“I will not stop it,” he had said, adding, “They are such dangerous people, that they will find a deficiency in it and send ED, CBI, IT, they can do anything. You can do anything, this work will proceed.”

The Jal Shakti Ministry is headed by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who belongs to Rajasthan. Gehlot had earlier accused Shekhawat and the former Deputy Chief Minister of the state, Sachin Pilot, of attempting to topple his government in 2020.