The Hindu : Inter-linking of rivers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 31, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Inter-linking of rivers

Sir, — Apropos A. Vaidyanathan's articles " Inter-linking of rivers " (March 26 and 27): In the hills, we have a long experience of working on traditional water harvesting systems and these decentralised systems work wonderfully everywhere. They are people friendly and part of our culture, while the mega projects such as interlinking of rivers are monoculture projects favoured by the policy makers ever since they were touted as the " temples of modern India ". As pointed out by the author, the interlinking of rivers will be an ecological and economic disaster, displacing millions of people and aggravating riparian disputes between the States. However, as there are crores of rupees at stake, it is a win-win situation for the greedy politicians, engineers, contractors and builders, and this is why such projects will come through, despite the well-meaning opposition to them.

Rakesh Agrawal,
Dehra Dun

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