Ken-Betwa project: Bringing rivers closer
On December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Madhya Pradesh’s Khajuraho to lay the foundation stone for various development projects. Among them was the ambitious Ken-Betwa river linking project that plans to transfer excess water from the Ken river basin to the Betwa river basin in the Bundelkhand region that covers parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. As the Prime Minister flagged off work on the project, the Congress and a section of environmentalists raised concerns regarding its potential impact on environment, local ecology and wildlife as a large part of the project falls inside the Panna National Park and Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh. According to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, the Ken-Betwa link project (KBLP) is the first of 30 such link projects under a National Perspective Plan (NPP) for water resources development and interlinking of rivers with ‘surplus water’ to those with ‘deficit water’, formulated in 1980 by the Ministry (then Union Ministry of Irrigation) and the Central Water Commission. The NPP is divided into two components — Himalayan …
