With the National Board for Wildlife giving clearance to Centre's Ken-Betwa river-linking project, receiving environmental nod for it will not be "difficult", Union minister Uma Bharti said here today and expressed hopes the work would start "soon".
Speaking to reporters here, the Union Water Resources Minister also urged Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to allow initial study of link projects involving Mahanadi river, which passes through the state, to address water requirements of the state.
"We hope to receive environmental clearance too very soon (for the project) because the environmental clearance is subject to wildlife clearance.
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"Since, we have received wild life clearance, we will not face difficulties as such in procuring environmental clearance," she said during a briefing on release of first tranche to states as Central Assistance for irrigation projects.
Bharti though said the clearance will happen only after new Environment Clearance committee is constituted. The term of the previous panel ended September 30.
"So, we are awaiting its formation. All the terms and conditions for environmental clearance will be fulfilled. Launch of the Ken-Betwa river-link project will be announced anytime after that," she added.
To a question on her trilateral meeting with Patnaik and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh last month over dispute between the two states on sharing the river water, Bharti said a joint panel of the states is currently studying availability of water there.
She added that telemetry system has been installed to monitor river flow in the two states.
The Minister also urged Patnaik to give permission to conduct initial examination for Tista-Sankosh-Mahanadi- Godavari inter-linking projects.
"I would like to urge Patnaik...Odisha is such a state which has both water and drought. I had gone to meet him to discuss the river-linking project. Odisha will only benefit from the project," she stressed.
Meanwhile, Bharti refused to comment on a question over "honey trap" episode involving BJP Parliamentarian Varun Gandhi.
"I had said at the beginning of the press conference that we will focus on the issue (of PMKYS). So, now it's not honey, but matter of paani (water). Isme achhe achhe doob jate hai, aur achhe achhe nikal aate hai (the water issue is such even experts some times mess up)," she stated.
To a question, she reiterated the Centre has considered
Polavaram project as a "special project" and assured it will be completed in a time bound manner with the help of states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha.
Bharti, accompanied by MoS Water Resources Sanjeev Balyan, announced release of first installment of Rs 1500 crore to states as Central Assistance for 99 prioritised irrigation projects under Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) through National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
This amount has been released for 50 projects in the states of Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan and Telangana.
Total funds required for completion of all the 99 identified projects have been estimated at Rs 77,595 crore (Rs 48,546 crore for project works and Rs 29,049 crore for command area development works).
Finance Minister in his Budget had announced creation of dedicated Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF) in NABARD with an initial corpus of about Rs 20,000 crore and an amount of Rs 12,517 crore was provided as budgetary resources and market borrowings during 2016-17.
