Modi Laid Foundation Stone of Ken-Betwa River Linking Project, Congress Terms it Environmental Disaster, SP Supports

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Dec 25: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of the Ken-Betwa river linking project at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh which the Congress said would be an environmental disaster threatening the Panna Tiger Reserve while its INDIA bloc ally Samajwadi Party took credit for originally conceptualising the project and slammed the BJP government at the centre for delaying it.

Mr Modi took the opportunity to hit out at the Congress for “ignoring” Dr BR Ambedkar’s contributions for the development of water resources in the country stating that in the 21st century, only the nations with adequate and well-managed water resources can advance. Ambedkar’s vision and farsightedness contributed significantly to the strengthening of the country’s water resources, their management and dam construction, Mr Modi said.

Mr Modi emphasised on Ambedkar contributions apparently to hit back the Congress which has launched a nation-wide campaign to slam the BJP government and the union home minister Amit Shah for allegedly “insulting” the framer of the constitution during a speech in the Rajya Sabha last week.

Mr Ambedkar played a crucial role in the development of major river valley projects and formation of the Central Water Commission, Mr Modi said.  However, the Congress party never paid heed to the country’s growing need of water conservation, and never recognised Ambedkar’s efforts as a water conservationist, Mr Modi said.

“The major challenge of the 21st century is water security. In the 21st century only those countries who have adequate water resources with proper management will move forward,” he said. The PM on this occasion also inaugurated the Omkareshwar Floating Solar Project in Khandwa district of the State virtually, and laid the foundation stone of the Daudhan Irrigation Project, part of the river-linking project.

Union Water Resources Minister C.R. Patil and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav handed over two kalash (urns) containing water from Betwa and Ken rivers, respectively, to Mr Modi, who poured it over a model of the project to launch the river linking work.

Congress and governance do not go together, he said, adding that past Congress governments delayed projects for 35-40 years after laying their foundation stones. The Ken-Betwa river linking will open new doors of prosperity and happiness in the Bundelkhand region, said the PM.

Nearly 44 lakh people in ten districts of Madhya Pradesh and 21 lakh in Uttar Pradesh will get drinking water under the project, which is estimated to cost ₹44,605 crore. Nearly 7.18 lakh agricultural families in 2,000 villages will benefit from the project, which will also generate 103 MW of hydropower and 27 MW of solar energy, officials said.

The Congress, however, described the project as “another proof” of the difference between Mr Modi’s “talk and walk” on the environment. The former Environment Minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, in a post on X, said the inauguration of the project was “one more evidence of the difference between his [Mr Modi] ‘talk’ and ‘walk’ on environment and forest matters”.

“The Ken-Betwa river linking project for which he is laying the foundation stone today poses a serious threat to the biodiversity-rich Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. Panna is the most remarkable success story of revival as by early 2009, its tiger population had been completely wiped out. Thanks to the tiger reintroduction programme launched 15 years ago – India’s first – presently Panna has around 90-plus tigers, including cubs and sub-adults, and is thriving with sustainable tourism-based livelihoods,” Mr Ramesh wrote.

The project would submerge over 10 per cent of the core area of the tiger reserve, he said. “Not only prime tiger habitats, but also those of other species like vultures, will be lost. The ecosystem will be bifurcated. More than 23 lakh trees are to be felled. Construction activities will be a severe disturbance,” Mr Ramesh added.

He claimed that three cement factories were being planned, and one had already been commissioned in the vicinity of the park. “What is unfortunate is that there are alternatives for executing the project (like locating the dam upstream) without causing such extensive ecological damage,” the Congress leader said.

Taking a completely divergent view, the SP president Akhilesh Yadav said his father, the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, had conceptualised the project with the view that “linking rivers is akin to linking the country” and had got into an understanding with Madhya Pradesh.

He shared a photo of his father signing a memorandum of understanding of the Ken-Betwa linking project with the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh [Babulal Gaur] and presenting it to the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

“The larger vision behind this project was to increase self-reliance and prevent migration by providing adequate water for irrigation, drinking and producing electricity as well as improving the water level of drought-prone Bundelkhand…,”Mr Yadav said in a post on X. Had the present Central government prioritised this project, “this great work of Netaji [Mulayam] would have started earlier and would have been completed by now,” he added.