'Task Force' on Interlinking of Rivers Constituted

The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, on Tuesday made up a 'Task Force' on the Interlinking of Rivers (ILR), comprising of experts and senior officials to look into the issues relating to ILR in India.

The Task Force would be chaired by ex-UPSC member and advisor to the Gujarat Chief Minister BN Navalawala.

The force will take up issues for expediting the work regarding connectivity of rivers. Apart from examining the existing links that are laid out as per the National Perspective Plan under both Himalayan and Peninsular components, alternate plans in place of infeasible links would also be initiated.

They would facilitate interlinking of intra-state and intra-basin Rivers also along with that of inter-state and inter-basin links.

The Task Force would also provide guidance on norms of appraisal of individual projects in respect of economic viability, socio-economic, environmental impacts and preparation of resettlement plans. It would also device suitable mechanisms for bringing about speedy consensus amongst the states and also propose suitable organizational structure for implementing the Interlinking of Rivers. The Task Force would also try to forge a consensus amongst the states in order to take forward the speedy implementation of the Interlinking of Rivers Program.

Expert members of the Task Force are Sriram Vedire, advisor in the Ministry of Water Resources, Prodipto Ghosh, former secretary in Ministry of Environment and Forests, M Gopalakrishnan, former member of Central Water Commission among others.