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Journalism of Courage
For years, the idea of linking rivers has had a sci-fi quality to it — one that is constantly dismissed as being too expensive and politically fraught to work. Yet the Ken-Betwa river linking pact, which was inked on Thursday, flies in the face of familiar fears.
Here we have two states perpetually short on water enter into a linking arrangement by which the surplus waters of the Ken basin will be transferred to the etiolated Betwa river through means of a channel and a dam. And, surprise, surprise, the two states are ruled by political parties that have been fierce rivals for power. Which only goes to show that the BSP — bijli, sadak, pani — mantra can get old political war horses to drink by the same riverside. Also please note how the UPA government is promoting the river linking idea, which had come to be perceived as an NDA initiative. The prime minister himself iterated in Parliament that his government will work toward linking national rivers. What if Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur saw the Ken-Betwa pact as one that “fulfilled Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s dream”, while the Union minister for Water Resources Development, P.R. Dasmunshi described it it as having “fulfilled the dream of former irrigation minister, K.L. Rao”? Ultimately, nobody should have a monopoly on a good idea, especially if it benefits the entire nation.
There is a view that such projects will only cause more floods and droughts. Most feasibility studies point in the other direction. The canal would, in fact, serve several extremely drought-prone districts that it will flow through in both UP and MP, and help contain the annual flooding of the Ken river basin. This is one river sutra, then, that will be observed closely — it could be a good model for other chronically water starved and flood prone regions in the country to follow.
