BANGALORE: The Supreme Court which gave a directive to the Union Government to set up a special committee to pursue a plan of linking rivers all over the country has got a handful of supporters.
Speaking to the media, D Gundappa, a retired IAS Officer and Gonverner of Akhila Bharatha Jala Sangama Andolana, said, “Over the past three decades, many proposals including NWDA (National Water Development Agency) were implemented. But these proposals have flaws. They should address and implement three main issues - flood relief, drought relief and methodology of linking (rivers).” Critisicing the plan of NWDA, he said, “This project proposes to collect water through construction of dams which could be costly and difficult to manage. Seeking an alternative method of collecting water is important and we have come with three fold initiative like the Himalayan component of tapping the flood waters by employing aquaducts/water flyover, the Western Ghats component, known as the Southern Grids, by employing the tunnelling method and rejuvenation of the tanks and canal network across the southern plateau,” Gundappa explained. “To achieve these objectives in a short period, we have formed a committee called Ganga Cauvery Multi State Water Care Co-operative Society,” he said.