The Hindu : Suresh Prabhu quits task force

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 03, 2004

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Suresh Prabhu quits task force

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, APRIL 2. The Chairman of the Task Force on Interlinking of Rivers, Suresh Prabhu, has resigned from his post. He put in his papers on March 31, and it had been accepted by the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Mr. Prabhu did not want to take any chance of his contest in the coming elections being contested on the ground that he was "holding an office of profit" as the chairman of a task force, sources said. In his resignation letter, Mr. Prabhu is reported to have cited contesting the elections as the reason for stepping down.

Mr. Prabhu is the sitting Shiv Sena MP from Rajapur in Maharashtra and is re-contesting there. There was speculation on whether Medha Patkar, leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, would challenge Mr. Prabhu in Rajapur. She later decided not to contest.

Mr. Prabhu's resignation comes at a time when the Task Force was finalising its Action Plan-II to give an indication of the costs involved and how to raise the funds for the mammoth programme estimated at Rs. 5.6 lakh crores. His appointment came in December 2000 and he was given the rank of a Cabinet Minister.

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