From: "riverswatch2003"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 1:10 PM
Subject:CSE Executive Board's Stand on Interlinking Rivers
Moderator's Note:
"You can't find a solution to a problem by employing the same thinking that moved you into the problem in the first place.'' - Einstein
Undoubtedly, one has to go beyond firefighting and protests against individual projects in order to play a role in changing the policy that makes the Indian Government undertake disastrous projects like the Interlinking of Rivers (ILR). Conversely, should one wait for the policy to change (on its own) and accept the Government's view till such time, to be in the august company of ILR advocates like Swaminathan, Verghese, Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi, Vaiko,Suresh Parbhu, Vajpayee, Advani, Sonia Gandhi & others in keeping with Dante's famous line `His will is aur Peace'.
While the (CSE) Centre for Science and Environment's stands on ILR comes under scrutiny in wake of the recent Stockholm recognition, isn't it amusing that the first Indian awardee of the Stockholm Prize too has been a supporter of ILR. He's none other than former Union Water Secretary Madhav Chitale whom some of the lead contributors to riverlink had challenged in an RSS sponsored discourse on ILR at Hyderabad, just before the Vajpayee government was voted out of power. Interestingly, neither has CSE reflected its clear stand on one of the most controversial enviro-developmental issue of all time nor has its Director been half as vocal as she is on other matters like bottled water. (Isn't confronting multinationals a step closer to the stardom?)But this ambiguity may have much to do with the composition of its governing board?
Chairperson of CSE, Dr M S Swaminathan supports this project. B G Verghese, a member of CSE Executive Board is a recipient of Magsaysay award for journalism in 1975 and was the information advisor to Indira Gandhi, the former Indian Prime Minister.He was a member of the Task Force under chairmanship of Suresh Prabhu. He has been a well known supporter of Interlinking of rivers. His views have been countered by people like Ramaswamy Iyer, Dr Sudhirendar Sharma and Himanshu Thakkar.
Treasurer of CSE, Dr B D Dikshit, has been a consultant with the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank at Manila and serves on the Boards of several companies as a nominee of the Government of India. Dr Kamla Chowdhry, a member of CSE Executive Board, has been a member of the World Bank's Advisory Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.Vikram Lal, a member of CSE Executive Board, has been associated with World Wildlife Fund, the Common Cause and the National Council for Applied Economic Research. His views on the project are not known. The views of these members may not be clearly known but it is clear that their affiliate institutions are(including the World Bank) highly supportive of ILR.
Views of other members like Ela Bhatt of SEWA; William Bissell, the Managing Director of FabIndia; G N Gupta, a Director in the Planning Commission; Dr Virendra Kumar, who has been advisor to the Planning Commission on hill areas are not clearly known. However, clearly the heavyweights in the board are supportive and may have influenced CSE and its Director?
Does that sum up the stand of CSE on ILR? But does it not bring CSE somewhat at par with the position of CPI and CPI (M) who did oppose ILR in their manifestoes but continue to support a government which is pushing the ILR project?
Even economists are divided on the issue but is it surprising that there is a strange political consensus on the issue - red, saffron & tricolur equally share the burden of ILR. With attempts of co-opting civil society voices by ILR supporters succeeding, the process of manufacturing societal consensus is clearly underway. The signs are indeed ominous!
One must acknowledge that the power brokers have mastered the art of consensus building, at the cost of an estimated 4.25 lakh people who would be displaced by ILR. But why worry, didn't World Bank recently say, displacement does not lead to poverty and illiteracy!
Moderator
--- In
riverlink@yahoogroups.com, Sankar Ray wrote: > This is not a volte face of the UPA goverrnment but confirmation of the ground reality that kulaks, civil engineers (mostly), bureaucrats
and the capitalist class have rapport with both the UPA and the NDA. The UPA, unlike the NDA, may not mortgage the Nation to the predatory interests of the North. But even the Left Front government of West Bengal, led by the CPI(M), " the only revolutionary party in India",
according to its general secretary, H S Surjeet, in an interview to the now-defunct Sunday Observer.
>
> Another request to those of us in the riverlink, who showered fulsome praise to Sunita Narain & CSE. I am too happy that an Indian - rather an Indian organisation that waged quite a number of ecological
battle formidably initiated mainly by the late Anil Agarwal ( I am afraid there is a silent endeavour among the CSE top brass to decimate AA's contributions). But those who expressed their high praise through
this link ought to persuade Sunita Narain to voice protest against reviving the inter-linking proposal - a conspiracy against one billion-plus Indians. The CSE top brass includes B G Verghese, a staunch campaigner for interlinking, and M S Swaminathan who too is
mum about it.
Sankar Ray
riverswatch2003 wrote:
Moderator's Note: After proposing to link Ken-Betwa and Parbati Kalisindh-Chambal and sharing with the citizens an incomplete, outdated and technically unapproved feasibility report of the Ken-Betwa now there is a proposal to take up Mahanadi-Godavari as the
third link involving Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
As per Government's report, a quantum of 11,176 Mcum is proposed for diversion through the link taking off at Manibhadra reservoir on Mahanadi to Dowlaiswaram Barrage on Godavari. This link will provide
enroute irrigation benefits to the tune of 4.54 lakh hectares, of which 1.02 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh and 3.52 lakh hectares in Orissa. In this process it will utilize 3,854 Mcum of water. The total length of the link canal is about 932 km including 6.30 km.of
length through a tunnel. The total transmission loss of the link canal is worked out to be 822 Mcum and proposes to transfer the remaining 6,500 Mcum of water to Godavari river for taking care of the water
demands of further South. There is also a provision to generate 966 MW of hydropower at Manibhadra dam in this link canal proposal.
As far as environment is concerned, the report claims, "The Manibhadra reservoir will submerge a total area of 45,900 ha at full reservoir level (FRL) 86.0 m. Under this reservoir, forest area to the extent of 4,881 ha is likely to be submerged. About 90,582 persons will be affected by the proposed Manibhadra reservoir submergence."
By the way, did any one hear anything about the Feasibility report of Parbati Kalisindh-Chambal and the Expert Committee headed by V K Duggal, the Water Resources Secretary with Rajinder Singh, Mala Kapoor, Ashok Khosla and others as its members. Did civil society members of the Expert Committee had the honour of reading the draft MoU which has been ciculated among the States for Interlinking Rivers?
Moderator
P.S: Your comments are invited on the Chapter on ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY which is now available at
http://www.riverlinks.nic.in/freports/kenbetwa/ENVIRONMENTAL_AND_ECOLOGICAL.pdf This chapter is an after thought. It was missing from the incomplete, outdated and technically unapproved feasibility report of the Ken-Betwa.
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