Ken-Betwa project: As it gets closer to reality, big questions still linger

The piecemeal approach to clearances leave many doubts about the project's environmental impact

The first among the ambitious interlinking of river projects, the Ken-Betwa linkage in Madhya Pradesh has reached its penultimate stage of clearance with the Ministry of Environment’s forest advisory committee giving its nod. It now requires only the approval of the environment minister to move into the implementation stage.

There is the Supreme Court's Central Empowered Committee to contend with as well but the government believes that may be an easy hurdle to cross considering that the committee has not yet raised any major objection to the project and asked for clarifications on some technical details.

The piecemeal approach permitted