(River water disputes between different states, particularly one between Tamilnadu and Karnataka, have fuelled the debate over interlinking of river water systems. We are here printing an article by Dr. N.K. Bhattacharyya on this issue. We welcome further contributions on this subject.            – Editor)

Severe drought situation prevailed in various parts of the country due to recurring failure of monsoon during the last two consecutive years. Our politicians and bureaucrats, however, completely ignored such massive human disaster. Rural poor people, without any job opportunity, could not purchase their ration and had to die in thousands out of continuous starvation. No one bothered to serve them food, though FCI godowns were overflowing with grains. At the same time, to reduce increasing stock of food in the godowns, the BJP Govt. is allowing traders to earn huge profit by selling them grains at below the BPL- (below poverty line) price for export and it was not difficult for them to avoid the law by submitting fabricated export documents. Govt. allowed people to die of starvation and at the same time unscrupulous traders were allowed to make some quick bucks through fake export. This is a Govt. run by a political party whose main vote bank is traders and commission agents.

Indian irrigation system has completely collapsed and in 2003 India’s agriculture is made to depend on vagaries of monsoon as it was in the beginning of 20th Century. 70% of the population living in five lakh plus villages feel totally insecure. To exploit this man-made economic crisis, Indian and foreign gang of Mafia have brought out from their hat a beautiful proposal (to make huge profit) for the politicians, bankers and contractors lobby of this country. They definitely have no compulsion to think of this poor country with less than $400 annual per capita income. It hardly matters to the professional looters that the poor people of this country are getting poorer day by day. They brought out from its grave an old anti-national concept of “inter linking of rivers” floated by Mr. K.L. Rao in the sixties which was long back thrown into the dustbin after considering all aspects of the case. There was another such proposal by Captain Dastur (called the “Garland Canal”), which deserved hardly any attention.

In order to gain credibility for such an anti-national project with the huge gold mine in store for the contractors, this current proposal of interlinking of rivers was brought by BJP Govt. at the Centre before the nation in a very clever and subtle manner. They knew that the previous Indian President, Mr. K.R. Narayanan, went to Alwar in Rajasthan and highly appreciated the community efforts made by the villagers in bringing to life a forgotten river through check dams and water harvesting techniques. The Govt. contributed nothing; rather the politicians tried to harass the people who were helping themselves. Anna Hazare made similar efforts in Rahalgaon district of Maharastra. People from drought-prone areas throughout the country consult him on water harvesting. Some in Gujarat have done excellent work of water harvesting in the traditional dry regions of Kutch and Northern Saurashtra. In large tracts of MP, water-harvesting method is followed and the people are enjoying good result. The people of this country are totally fed up with all big projects which fail to deliver promised results. They yield high profits to contractors and politicians only. People want restoration of old silted-up storage tanks where surplus rainwater may be stored for the rabi season and for emergency. The experience of ordinary cultivators is that rivers should not be disturbed at all in their natural flow and our MNCs and foreign Institutional investors should be kept miles away from rural schemes as they only destroy rural India with their big and bigger projects. Sardar Sarovar Project on Narmada is the recent reminder to the country of how mega-projects enrich contractors like J.P. Industries and others while lakhs of adivasi families are on the roads of metropolitan towns pulling rickshaws or begging for food. If this is not destruction of rural India then what else is? Do our PM ever bother for these lakhs of hapless citizens of our country forcibly uprooted from their ancestral land for no fault of their own. Inter linking of rivers is again one such project which will bring more miseries to the people of this country. That is why till today the Govt. is following the project in a hush hush manner.

It is very difficult to believe that our learned present President does not know about all the community level work specially when millions are suffering every year due to complete failure of gigantic multi-crore projects. In his speech to the nation delivered on 14th August, 2002, BJP led Govt. announced as a policy decision the issue of Interlinking of Indian Rivers. Subsequently to give it a judicial approval by the highest court of the country, this was raised through a PIL before the bench of Chief Justice of India, Mr. B.N. Kripal on 31st October 2002, just one day before his formal retirement and he observed that the interlinking of river project should be completed in next ten years. However, the learned Judge, after retirement, denied that he issued any order. He said it was just an observation and need not be followed up. The BJP led Central Govt. wants it and the case is being monitored minutely by the Supreme Court and it is ordering the Govt. to complete the project as per schedule.

We are told that BJP workers in the south have promised the people of Tamilnadu that BJP, after it comes back to power with two-thirds majority at the Centre after 2004 parliamentary election, would deliver to each household pure Himalayan Ganga water and for that they have to support BJP in the election. Whether Ganga water comes or not the small time BJP traders in Tamilnadu are having a nice time promoting the sale of brand new metal water containers to keep Ganga water when it comes. This is the tragedy of Indian democracy!

Will any political party allow flow of Ganga water to states other than those over which it is traditionally flowing? Are interstate river disputes totally forgotten? The Farakka Barrage was constructed some time back to save Kolkata Port from closing down from siltation at the estuary of the Ganga and it caused huge controversy: both politicians of Bihar and Bangladesh vehemently opposed the project. The Kolkata Port even then could not be made navigable for huge international ships; an alternative port at Haldia had to be created by spending huge amount to handle modern ships. The basic thesis for interlinking of rivers is that surplus water should be diverted to dry areas but in that process if the original river water is completely sucked out and the river stops flowing, that will mean ‘killing’ of a river and it is an anti-national act. Perennial rivers should be allowed to flow according to their own natural course, there should be minimum interference in their natural flow system. Human settlements have to follow the discipline of the natural river. It is always dangerous to tamper with ecosystem; man’s greed for money has nothing to do with social and ecological justice. There are instances in India where those rich and affluent people whom even our courts are afraid of, have diverted the flow of rivers so that they can construct their hotel project and earn huge profit. In PM’s mega road project, where contractors and politicians are earning huge profit, large number of huge trees are desperately uprooted and wide roads are constructed. It hardly matters where the roads will be utilised or not. Who guarantees the quality of these roads? In Delhi roads on the flyovers are hardly some months old but look at their horrible condition in this rainy season. Where are the contractors? The BJP Govt. is treated as the worst form of corrupt government in the history of India!

The argument is that recurring loss in economy due to flood and drought should be stopped by diverting surplus water from one river to another river. But before that is taken up let the Govt. explain why not they bring some documents to show that this is a better alternative. Since independence, both the Centre and the states have taken various river valley projects and spent billions of rupees on these projects. Before they take up billion dollar Interlinking of river project, we demand a comprehensive performance report on the working of these river valley projects – their present state of affairs both of completed and partly completed projects. Many of them were termed as multipurpose projects and students of those days were asked to explain specific benefits of those projects in various examinations. Now almost all of them are sick or nonfunctional or if they function somehow, no one knows how long they will survive. In real life year after year during the rainy season when cultivators don’t need any canal water, their fields are always badly flooded with canal water released to save the dam, and when farmers require water due to long dry spell to save the standing crops or in the rabi season, there may not be sufficient water in the dam due to lower storage capacity. Excessive silting at the dam site has reduced the carrying capacity of the dams. Canals have vanished in the fields due to wilful neglect of maintenance. Why the existing projects are not properly repaired and efficiently maintained? The conventional answer is that governments are bankrupt and neither the Centre nor the states have any fund after paying salary to their staff. During last so many plans, public investments on irrigation and rural development was virtually nil and criminal politicians and their contractor friends looted whatever small allocations were made. It is reported in the Press that previous Central Rural Development Minister Mr. Shanta Kumar complained to the PM how Mr. Naidu, the BJP President, diverted fund of Rural Development Ministry when he was holding its charge to favour a particular contractor or a group of contractors in his home state. In such a state of affairs government is still not transparent from where it will arrange this huge investments of around Rs. 5,60,000 crore for financing the interlinking of rivers?

This is the estimate as on 2002-03 and the project is promised before Supreme Court to be completed before 2016. If past practices are any guide the cost may easily go up by 100 to 200 percent before it is completed 13 years later. Now who will finance this mega project except international financial agencies to which we already owe more than $100 billion? We don’t know why Govt. is not clearly explaining to the people the causes that stop us from repaying loan obligations to multilateral agencies, specially when our foreign exchange reserve is reaching $100 billion. Everything is kept secret: conditionalities of loan agreements, sources from where this foreign exchange is coming to India and what stops us from repayment of foreign loan taken by the government without consulting the people. Who will reply? Both the RBI Governor and Finance Minister are ignoring the questions as if they do not have any accountability on this vital national issue. This is the way fascist democracy functions in India.

World Bank and IMF are at least very clear on such issues. Both of them have included schemes for commercialising and privatising water in their recent conditionalities for loans to developing countries. In England where Margaret Thatcher started privatisation with a bang, private water companies increased their profit by 692% between 1989 and 1995 while cost to the consumers increased by 106%. In France privatisation of water services meant an increase in consumer price by 300% between 1984 and 1997. World Bank forced Bolivian Govt. to hand over public water system to an MNC, Bechtel, which increased the water prices astronomically high and individual residents were compelled to collect permit to store even rainwater in their own property. This angered the people so much that Bolivian Govt. was forced to withdraw water privatisation law. In India, many MNCs are given contract to supply water in the metropolitan areas like Degremont from France for Rithala water treatment plant in Delhi. Bottled water marketed by both MNCs and Indian companies are far from safe as drinking water, but Govt. doesn’t have the courage to intervene. When LDF Govt. was ruling in Kerala, it allowed an MNC, Coca Cola, to lift water from a particular river for its plant, which resulted in complete drying up of the ground water level of adjoining agricultural land. Cultivators are up in arms and want the MNC plant to close down. Now UDF Govt. of Mr. Anthony is blaming CPI(M) for this blunder.

Mr. S. Prabhu was happily privatizing electricity sector as the Central Minister of Power but he was asked to resign from the post by his Party boss Bal Thakery and BJP has retained his chair by offering Chairmanship of the Task Force on Interlinking of Rivers. It appears that Mr. Prabhu, a Shiv Sainik, will enjoy privatisation of Indian Rivers for the purpose of interlinking (Look at the huge billion of dollar investment). It hardly matters to him, what will happen to his thousands of brothers and sisters who worship Lord Shiva (Kanwarias) and every year they travel long distances from different parts of the country to go to Hardwar and carry back Ganga water. Will WB’s nutured MNCs allow use of Ganga water free of cost by Shiv Sainiks and volunteers of VHP? Will Bal Thakary stop this inter-linking of river project and privatisation of water resources? Will he ask Probhu to resign again from such a multi-crore hot money project? The so-called Shiv Sainiks and VHP brand Hindus who gather in lakhs to enjoy Khumb Mela on the basin of various rivers frequently – will they be allowed to continue pollution of rivers if they are privatised ? These rituals on the rivers of India have only polluted river water and made it completely unsafe for animal and human use. Will these fundamentalists of Hindutva Brand allow commercialization and privatisation of our rivers? Without commercialisation of our rivers, at least in next 50 years no government in India will be able to raise enough resources to carry on with this mega project. We have the sad horrible experiences of both Ganga and Yamuna Action Plans – contractors and politicians have become richer but pollution in both the rivers has multiplied several times instead of going down. We must learn from the experience of different countries in Latin America and Africa, that water should never be privatised and handed over to business houses.

It is strange that both RSS and its front organization, the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, have agreed with the govt. policy to destroy Indian Rivers and its water resources. Worst will be when MNCs will be given exploitation responsibility of individual rivers and other sources of water. Supply of safe drinking water is the minimum responsibility of any civilised Govt. and if it fails it should be shown the exit door.  A hundred crore people of this country are pushed back to live in deteriorating human conditions (now in Human Development Index India ranks 127 against 124/125 previously). In the garb of interlinking of rivers the BJP Govt. wants to privatize the water resources of the country and like electricity there is huge money in this project. It started at the top with the blessings of the Chief Executive Officer of the country and subsequently is supported by the highest judiciary. There is no debate in the country and the decisions are imposed on the people. Till today water is a state subject and almost all the states have opposed the interlinking project as they don’t have any excess water in their rivers. Even then the sick Prime Minister is insisting on starting of the project simply because the Indian agents of MNCs are pressuring the Govt. to move fast because the economies of the developed countries are in shambles and G-8 countries are restless about how to run their sick economies. Bush and Blair can tell lies and survive in their ‘imperial’ democracies and occupy resource rich countries like Iraq with their muscle power. An average Indian understands the inner meaning of this project – Interlinking of Rivers or Privatisation of Indian Water Resources. It is high time we should accept the challenge thrown by both Indian Executive and Judiciary. We understand the unending unwritten powers to harass its citizens by both the organs of the state. No threat of contempt of Court can stop Indians from seeking explicit clarification again and again that water being a non substitutable integrated item to sustain life like air, can it be privatised and commercialized through back door or front door? The policy makers can not hide their faces like ostriches in the sand; they should be made accountable for their decisions. The BJP Govt. stands answerable to the people of this country.