Bengaluru: Sensing that Karnataka would benefit from the Union government’s ambitious proposal to interlink rivers in the country, the state government has made a shift from its decade long opposition to interlinking of rivers.
Buoyed by the success in convincing the Union government that Karnataka got a raw deal in the sharing of river water compared to other riparian states, water resources minister M.B. Patil has come out with a major drinking water project utilising almost four TMCft of re-generated water for Bengaluru city at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a source close to Mr Patil disclosed that his ambitious plan to provide additional drinking water to Bengaluru city had got the required support from the Union government with its recent reply stating that Karnataka was eligible to utilise 99 MCM of water which translates into almost four TMCft of re-generated water to meet its needs. “The Union government is preparing a DPR for the Ponnaiyar-Palar intra state link project too,” the source claimed. The source added that the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) had for first time in the last 10-years accepted that there's a point in Karnataka's claim which has opened up the option of legal recourse to lay claim to re-generated water in various river basins such as Godavari, Mahadayi, Krishna, Cauvery, Vaigai, Pennar and Gundar river basins.
“Even though NWDA is not a water allotting agency per se, its acceptance of Karnataka's point of view is a big thing. Mr Patil raised this during his recent Jal Manthan meeting on September 15, to which the NWDA responded positively on October 13,” the source contended.
