CHENNAI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday made a grand pitch for linking major rivers, including the Brahmaputra in the Northeast, with the Cauvery and Godavari in Peninsular India, saying such an initiative could ensure that India faces no water shortage for the next 100 years.
Chairing the 31st meeting of the Southern Zonal Council here, Shah said protecting the interests of individual states was not wrong, but questioned the rationale of states remaining deprived of water for years while surplus water elsewhere flowed into the sea.
He said river-linking could help overcome such situations and also facilitate the creation of multiple waterways, reducing fuel consumption, benefiting the environment and providing a cost-effective system of transportation.
Stating that the southern states have been the main pillars of India’s progress, Shah said, “Whether it is agriculture, industry, healthy citizens or the environment, water is the soul of this region in all these four areas.”
As for inter-state water disputes in the North, he said five of the eight issues had persisted since the pre-British era. An agreement was finally reached five months ago, resolving all issues from Kashmir to UP.
Shah called for the early resolution of pending water-related issues in the South through joint meetings of the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Ministry of Home Affairs, Inter-State Council and the concerned states.
Chief ministers C Joseph Vijay, N Chandrababu Naidu, D K Shivakumar and V D Satheesan, Lt Governors K Kailashnathan, Admiral (Retd.) D K Joshi and Telangana deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka attended the meeting.
Dropout rate
Shah also stressed the need to tackle school dropouts, malnutrition and stunting, saying the national school dropout rate of 9.5% should be brought below 3% through incremental effort by all states