Objection My lord!
Mission Impossible!
Listen to experts!
A Flawed vision!
.............were some comments from various experts who were following the 27th February 2012 directive of Supreme court, the apex body of judiciary of our country on the issue of Interlinking of Rivers (ILR).
With all due respect, although one should not question the decision making of the Supreme Court but after going through various reports on the issue, I do support the critics.
The problem here is that although there are many benefits of ILR but one should not ignore the social, economic and environmental costs associated with the projects.
Let's first understand the concept. In our nation, there exists an acute imbalance in the distribution of water resources. On one hand we have rivers like Ganga and Bramhaputra with surplus of water where as on the other hand, we have places like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh etc. with shortage of water. This imbalance could be brought down by interlinking of rivers. This could be achieved by constructing reservoirs alongside the rivers with surplus and then transfering the water collected to the regions with water shortage. This is termed as ILR.
But wait a minute! The concept looks great on paper. There are many benefits like additional irrigation, domestic and industrial water supply, hydropower genertion and navigational facilities. But several reports suggest that inspite of many benefits, the projects may not be feasible. The
K. L. Rao report (1972) and Dr. Dastur Proposal (1977) clearly state that the projects will cost more than thier benefits. Moreover, there are several problems like displacement of the local people, law and order situation, environmental impact etc.
Also, there is an ambiguity regarding the positions of the states. West Bangal and Bihar don't want Ganga water diverted. Odisha doesn't say that there is any surplus in the Mahanadi for transfer. Andhra Pradesh is not willing to give water from the Godavari because there is, in its view, no surplus. So, how are the projects feasible?
Moreover the government is itself not sure about its position on the projects. Just because it's a gigantic project, the government engineers support the projects. The theory is "The bigger, the better!". Not a long-term approach i must say!
Still Supreme court came up with a judgement directing the government to implement the projects. Just on the basis of an amicus curiae, Mr. Ranjit Kumar, who cited the speech by our former president Shri. A P J Abdul Kalam, the judgement was given.
Supreme Court should take this as a lesson for future decisions because we all have a lot of respect for the body especially after a landmark decision on 2G scam which cemented their credibility. After such a brilliant judgement, the ILR directive came as a shocker!
That's why i say that there is some homework required!
No comments:
Post a Comment