Interlinking rivers only solution to water disputes: VP Radhakrishnan
Vice President CP Radhakrishnan on Saturday pitched for interlinking rivers as the only lasting solution to the long-standing water-sharing disputes between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
He underlined that the interests of farmers in both States must take precedence over politics and that no drop of water should be allowed to flow wastefully into the sea.
Addressing the 517th birth anniversary celebrations of Nada Prabhu Kempegowda, the founder of Bengaluru city, at Jnanajyoti Auditorium in Bengaluru, the Vice President said the Centre had already begun discussions on river interlinking and expressed confidence that the initiative would be implemented in phases to ensure equitable distribution of water among farmers across the country.
“The interests of both State farmers should be taken into account. That is the real solution for this problem,” Radhakrishnan, who hails from Tamil Nadu, said, asserting that political rhetoric would not resolve the decades-old Cauvery dispute.
The Vice President said the only sustainable solution was to link rivers across the country so that surplus water could be shared among all States.
“The only solution to this problem is that we should take care of the concerned farmers of every state. The water going into the sea should get stopped first. That water should be utilised by all the farmers equally, fairly,” he said.
Recalling his tenure as the BJP’s Tamil Nadu president, Radhakrishnan said he had advocated the interlinking of the Ganga and the Cauvery during a statewide ‘Yatra’.
He said, “Farmer is always a farmer. Whether he speaks Kannada, Tamil, Telugu or Marathi, that doesn’t make any difference. They are the Annadata (giver of food) for all of us.”
He said recent discussions with the Union Water Resource Ministry had focused on taking forward river interlinking projects in a phased manner and pointed to the recent joint participation of southern Chief Ministers at the Tungabhadra Dam as a positive step towards greater cooperation.
