Union minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh recently took the stand that the Ken-Betwa river linking project should be abandoned as it could spell disaster from the ecological point of view but the Madhya Pradesh minister for agriculture Ramkrishna Kusmaria thinks otherwise. According to him, the project would improve the ground water situation and help in improving the green cover.
Recently, during his visit to the Panna Tiger Reserve, the environment minister had told a group of journalists that he would not allow the Ken-Betwa river linking project as it would lead to disastrous consequences. The state minister for agriculture, who represents the Patharia Assembly constituency in Damoh district, has countered Mr Ramesh by taking him head on over the Ken-Betwa river linking project and starting a debate on its impact on environment. He has made it categorically clear that more number of trees would be planted to offset the loss in the submergence area once this project takes off. This debate has signs of acquiring political overtones as those in the ruling BJP are gearing up to describe any move to shelve this project as anti-people and contrary to the interests of the farmers of Bundelkhand region. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had hailed the river linking programme as “bold and historic” and had also emphasised that it was “set to change the water management paradigm in the country”.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) for linking the Ken-Betwa rivers was signed on August 25, 2005 by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and the then Madhya Pradesh chief minister Babulal Gaur, who is now a senior member in the state Cabinet. The then Union water resource minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi was also a signatory to the tripartite agreement on behalf of the Centre. This agreement was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
After the signing of this agreement, Dr Singh had cautioned the states to consider all the “social and environmental aspects” before going ahead with major schemes for inter-linking of rivers. It was projected at that stage that the ambitious Ken-Betwa project would augment the irrigation capacity and improve the potable water supply situation in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh by constructing a dam and a 231-km long link canal for diversion of surplus waters in Ken river basin to the Betwa basin.