Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

Minutes of the 15th meeting of Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers (ILR) held under the Chairmanship of Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister WR, RD & GR on 20th August, 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, New

The fifteenth meeting of the Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers (SCILR) chaired by Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (WR, RD & GR) was held on 20th August, 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, . Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hon’ble Minister of State for WR, RD & GR, Shri T. Harish Rao, Hon’ble Minister of Irrigation, Government of Telangana, Shri D. Uma Maheswara Rao, Hon’ble Minister of Water Resources, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Satpal Maharaj, Hon’ble Minister of Tourism and Irrigation, Government of , Shri D.K. Shivakumar, Hon’ble Minister of Water Resources, Government of Karnataka and Members/ representatives from various Central Government and State Government Organisations attended the meeting. The list of members and other officers who attended the meeting is placed at Annex-I.

At the outset, Secretary (WR, RD & GR) welcomed Hon’ble Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and other Hon’ble Ministers from Union and various States and the members and participants of the Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers. He then requested Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD & GR) for his opening remarks.

Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD & GR) mentioned that NWDA is pursuing Interlinking of Rivers (ILR) Projects as proposed under NPP and the Intra-State link projects as proposed by various State Governments. He informed that a draft Cabinet Note for Central State Funding Pattern in the ratio of 90:10 for ILR projects, in principle approval for internal and external funding and constitution of National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA) for implementation of ILR projects has been circulated to all concerned departments for comments. He opined that the requirements of funding for ILR programme under NPP and intra-state links are enormous. Hon’ble Minister informed that he is vigorously pursuing the issue of funding of both inter-State and intra-State link projects as national projects. The Hon’ble Minister requested cooperation of the concerned States for expediting signing of agreement for implementation of the link projects which are ready for implementation. He further informed that five link projects have been identified for implementation on priority and solicited cooperation from the concerned States. He informed that the ILR projects on implementation will benefit the States only and as such the concerned States should resolve all the issues so that these projects could be implemented on priority.

Raising his concern on rural migration, Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD & GR) mentioned that ILR projects would provide water to water short areas and rural areas for irrigation and other uses. The increased agriculture activities will generate lot of

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR employment which will result in overall social upliftment of the area and will check the rural migration. He indicated that some parts of the country are suffering with floods and at the same time many other areas of the country are not having the water even for drinking. In many parts of the country water is contaminated due to arsenic and other heavy metals which are harmful for human consumption. He requested the State Governments to consider the ILR projects in national interest and resolve the issues so that the ILR projects can be taken further for implementation and reduce the suffering of the people due to flood and drought in the country.

Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD & GR) further mentioned that survey & investigation and preparation of Detailed Project Report are part of consensus building process for implementation of any water resources project. Therefore, to accelerate the process, NWDA should first undertake and complete the DPRs of the Interlinking of rivers programme.

Hon’ble Minister informed that the Ministry of WR, RD & GR has organised a Workshop for use of pipes in irrigation projects. Use of pipe network for carrying the water will reduce the land acquisition which will ultimately reduce the cost of project. Hon’ble Minster also observed the need of constituting a legal mechanism to fast track the consent of States and implementation of the ILR projects. He assured justice to all States. As poor is worst affected and ILR projects will provide economic growth, thus, implementation of the ILR & Intra-State link projects need to be expedited and requested cooperation of the States for faster implementation of ILR projects.

Secretary (WR, RD & GR) clarified that the Water Resources projects are very complex in nature. NWDA is working very hard to complete the DPRs and obtaining requisite clearances. He mentioned that some water resources projects planned 50 years ago could not be completed as yet. He also mentioned that the Hydrology and planning of the project is very important. He gave an example of Maharashtra State where two dams could not get water due to the fact that on upstream some dams were constructed at later date. In the present scenario the problem is becoming more complex due to land acquisition and R&R issues after the land acquisition act, 2014. Inter-State issues also need to be addressed appropriately. Inspite of increasing problems in the water resources sector, NWDA has done tremendous efforts to achieve the target set for preparation of DPRs and consensus of concerned States. NWDA has achieved various requisite clearances in respect of Ken-Betwa Link Phase-I but the authorities have provided the clearance with difficult terms and conditions and NWDA is struggling to get these conditions relaxed which is a time taking process. These complexities are the major cause of delay in implementation of the Interlinking of rivers projects.

Thereafter, Director General, NWDA took up the agenda items for discussion.

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

Item No.15.1: Confirmation of the minutes of the 14th meeting of the Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers held on 17th January, 2018 at New Delhi

Director General, NWDA informed that the minutes of the 14th meeting of Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers (SCILR) held on 17th January, 2018 at New Delhi were circulated to all the members vide letter dated 9th February, 2018.

Since no comments have been received from any of the member, the minutes of the 14th meeting were confirmed as circulated.

Item No.15.2: Follow-up action on the decisions taken during the last meeting

Director General, NWDA informed that as decided in the 14th meeting of Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers, Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR organised Regional Conference of Southern States at Hyderabad on 20th February, 2018, Eastern States at Kolkata on 16th April, 2018 and Western States at Mumbai on 18th June, 2018. Alternative proposal of diversion of Godavari waters upto Cauvery basin was discussed during these conferences besides various other issues of Member States. The minutes of these meetings are at Annex-II, Annex-III and Annex-IV respectively.

Item No.15.3: Ken-Betwa Link Project Phase-I – Status of various statutory clearances

Director General, NWDA informed status of various statutory clearances of Ken-Betwa Link Project Phase-I as indicated in the Agenda Notes of the meeting which was noted by the Members of the Committee. Item No. 15.4: Ken-Betwa Link Project Phase-II-Present Status of DPR

Director General, NWDA informed status of various components under DPR of Ken-Betwa Link Project Phase-II as indicated in the Agenda Note of the meeting which was noted by members of the Committee.

Item No.15.5: Damanganga-Pinjal and Par-Tapi-Narmada Link Projects – Present Status of DPRs

The Director General, NWDA informed the present status of Damanganga- Pinjal and Par-Tapi-Narmada link which was noted by Members of Committee.

The issue of obtaining various statutory clearances in respect of Par-Tapi- Narmada Link Project and Damanganga-Pinjal Link Project was discussed. Representative of Government of indicated no objection for obtaining required clearance from concerned agencies in respect of these two link projects by NWDA. Accordingly, Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD & GR) directed NWDA to immediately initiate the process for obtaining various clearances from concerned

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR agencies in respect of Par-Tapi-Narmada Link Project and Damanganga-Pinjal Link Project.

Item No. 15.6: Status of Intra-State link proposals

The present status of intra-state river link proposals of various State Governments as given in the Agenda Notes was noted by the Members of the Committee.

Item No.15.7: Restructuring of National Water Development Agency

Director General, NWDA informed that a Sub-Committee for Restructuring of NWDA (SC-III) was constituted by MoWR, RD & GR in the year 2015 to assist the Special Committee on ILR. The Sub-Committee-III submitted its report in September, 2015 to the Ministry. A presentation was made before Hon’ble Minister for WR, RD & GR. The report was also discussed in the meetings of Special Committee for ILR. A presentation on this report was made to the Secretary (WR, RD & GR) in December, 2016, where in NWDA was advised to review the manpower requirement considering that certain works/activities could be outsourced. NWDA accordingly submitted the revised proposal for interim strengthening of NWDA to the Ministry in May, 2017. This proposal with cost of Rs. 13 crore has been included in the EFC of RBM Scheme.

Director General, NWDA further informed that during the 65th Governing Body Meeting of NWDA held on 23.03.2018, the Joint Secretary (RD&PP), MOWR, RD & GR informed that the Ministry by and large agreed to the proposal of Restructuring of NWDA but as the Ministry is undertaking larger reforms, the restructuring of NWDA will become a sub set of this.

Director General, NWDA further explained that due to enhanced mandate of NWDA it become essential to strengthen the NWDA. As the proposal for restructuring of NWDA is under process in the MOWR, RD & GR, it is proposed that keeping in view of urgency of works to be completed in a time bound manner 5 posts in the various technical cadres may be created and 9 posts in various cadres may be upgraded as an interim measure as a part of restructuring of NWDA. After discussions it was decided that a presentation in this regard will be made by NWDA to the Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD& GR).

Item No. 15.8: Task Force for Interlinking of Rivers

Director General, NWDA informed that Task Force for ILR is assisting the Special Committee for ILR and MoWR, RD & GR regarding the implementation of ILR Programme. Nine meetings of the Task Force have been held so far and the last meeting was held on 30.05.2018.

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

Constitution of the Financial Group

Director General, NWDA informed that the MoWR, RD & GR vide OM dated 12.09.2017 has constituted a Group on Financial Aspects under Task Force for Interlinking of Rivers, headed by Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, former Secretary to the Government of and Member of the Task Force. The Group has submitted its Interim Report to the Chairman, Task Force for ILR on 7th August, 2018. The report is under consideration by the Task Force for ILR.

Item No. 15.9: Alternative proposal of Diversion of Godavari waters upto Cauvery basin

Director General, NWDA informed the detailed status as given in the Agenda Notes which was noted by the Members of the Committee. Shri Sriram Vedire suggested to explore the possibility of diversion of Godavari water from proposed Inchampalli dam with reduced height (FRL 95.0 m). DG, NWDA informed that at this reduced height, the contemplated storage will be reduced. After discussions it was decided that a study will be done by NWDA to examine the possibility of diverting water from Inchampalli Low Dam. Shri T. Harish Rao, Hon’ble Minister, Irrigation, Government of Telangana suggested that NWDA should discuss with their officials in the planning and formulation of the Godavari-Krishna link. He extended full cooperation of the State of Telangana in this regard. Shri D.K. Shivakumar, Hon’ble Minister of Water Resources Govt. of Karnataka mentioned that NWDA has not considered the allocation of water share to Karnataka while planning diversion through Godavari-Cauvery Link and as such requested rightful share of Karnataka. DG, NWDA clarified that a technical note was prepared in December, 2017 and no allocation was made to any State. Once the DPR is completed, the quantum of divertible water will be known and the issue of share of riparian States will be taken up for discussion.

The Principal Secretary (WR) Odisha has requested to provide copy of MoU for DPR preparation which was agreed to.

Shri D. Uma Maheswara Rao, Hon’ble Minister of Water Resources Govt. of Andhra Pradesh informed that their State is actively pursuing Interlinking of rivers and their State also giving priority for ground water recharge.

Item No.15.10: Extension of tenure of Sub-Committee-I & II under the Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers

Director General, NWDA informed that a number of issues as per the terms of reference have been discussed in the meetings of both the Sub Committees. A large amount of works still remain to be carried out by these Sub Committees. As such, the tenure of Sub-Committees-I & II needs to be extended by another one year to carry out various studies, review reports, system studies, evaluate the reports/studies etc.

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

Accordingly, the Special Committee for ILR agreed to extend the tenure of the Sub- Committees-I & II by another one year w.e.f. 12.02.2018.

Item No.15.11: Any other item with the permission of the Chair

Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD & GR) observed that due to slow pace of concurrence by the concerned States regarding ILR projects, the implementation of these projects getting delayed which ultimately delaying the likely benefits to the nation. To fast track the consensus building process he suggested to setup a legal mechanism which can take up the process of consensus building with an aim to implement ILR projects on priority. The Special Committee on ILR deliberated on the suggestion of the Hon’ble Minister. Shri S. Masood Husain, Chairman, CWC informed that the Legal Group was setup on the directions of the Task Force has submitted its report to the Taskforce. The suggestions of the Legal Group should be considered by this Committee before arriving at any decision in this regard. Hon’ble Minister requested Chairman, CWC to make a presentation before him on the report of Legal Group.

Hon’ble Minister of State for WR, RD & GR stated that the Regional Conferences held earlier found quite useful for finding a consensus on various issues.

Hon’ble Minister of Tourism and Irrigation, Government of Uttarakhand, Shri Satpal Maharaj raised the issue of funding of the Drinking Water projects of his State.

Shri D.K. Shivakumar, Hon’ble Minister of Water Resources Government of Karnataka mentioned that the NWDA has not considered the allocation of water share to Karnataka while planning diversion through Godavari-Cauvery link and as such requested rightful share of Karnataka.

Shri D. Uma Maheswara Rao, Hon’ble Minister of Water Resources Government of Andhra Pradesh Stated that in addition to Interlinking of rivers the Andhra Pradesh State is giving priority for ground water recharge.

The representative of Government of Rajasthan mentioned that the proposal of Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal (PKC) link should be expedited by CWC.

The Secretary, Water Resources, Government of Andhra Pradesh mentioned that they have submitted revised estimate of Polavaram Project to CWC a year back and requested to expedite the same. Secretary (WR, RD & GR) mentioned that CWC should look into the justification of escalation of cost in the revised estimate.

Meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

***

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

Annex-I

List of Members, Special Invitees and participants of 15th Meeting of the Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers held on 20.08.2018 at Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, New Delhi.

1. Shri Nitin Gadkari, In Chair Hon’ble Union Minister (WR, RD & GR), Government of India, & Chairman, Special Committee for ILR, New Delhi 2. Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Member Hon’ble Minister of State (WR, RD & GR), Government of India, New Delhi 3. Shri Satpal Maharaj, Member Hon’ble Minister (Irrigation), Government of Uttarakhand, 4. Shri D. Uma Maheswara Rao, Member Hon’ble Minister of Water Resources, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Velagapudi 5. Shri D. K. Sivakumar, Member Hon’ble Minister of Water Resources, Government of Karnataka, Bangaluru 6. Shri T. Harish Rao, Member Hon’ble Minister (Irrigation), Government of Telangana, Hyderabad 7. Shri U. P. Singh, Member Secretary, MoWR, RD & GR, Government of India, New Delhi 8. Shri S. Masood Hussain, Member Chairman, Central Water Commission, New Delhi 9. Shri R.S. Prasad Member Former Chairman, CWC, New Delhi 10. Shri Ajay Kumar Singh, Member Former Engineer/ HoD(Environment), Western Coalfield Ltd., Nagpur 11. Shri Sriram Vedire Member Social Activist & Advisor, MoWR, RD & GR, New Delhi 12. Shri K. K. Payasi, Member Retd. Chief Engineer, PHED, Government of MP, & Social Activists, Satna (M.P.) 13. Shri Arun Kumar Singh, Member Additional Chief Secretary, WRD, Government of Jharkhand, Ranchi

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

14. Shri Rakesh Singh, Member Principal Secretary, WRD, Government of Karnataka, Bangaluru 15. Shri Pradeep Jena, Representing Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary, WRD, Government of Odisha Government of Odisha, Bhubaneswar 16. Shri Raj Mani Yadav, Member Secretary, Irrigation, Government of , 17. Shri Shashi Bhushan Kumar, Member Secretary, WRD, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Velagapudi 18. Shri R. V. Panse Member Secretary, WRD, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai 19. Shri A. K. Dinkar Representing Secretary, Engineer-in-Chief, Irrigation Department, Irrigation Department, Government of Uttrakhand, Dehradun Government of Uttrakhand 20. Shri K.S. Ramkumar, Representing Secretary, Vice Chairman, CTC cum ISWW, PWD, Government of Tamil Government of Tamil Nadu, Chennai Nadu 21. Shri K. B. Rabadia Representing Secretary, Chief Engineer (SG) & WRD, Government of Gujarat Addl. Secretary (WRD), Government of Gujarat, Gandhi Nagar 22. Shri S. Narasimha Rao Representing Principal Chief Engineer (IS&WR), Secretary (I & CAD), Government of Telangana, Hyderabad Government of Telangana 23. Shri Celestine Xaxa, Representing Principal Chief Engineer (Monitoring), WRD, Secretary, WRD, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur Government of Chhattisgarh 24. Shri Ravi Solanki, Representing Principal Addl.Chief Engineer (WR), Secretary, WRD, Government of Rajasthan, Jaipur Government of Rajasthan 25. Dr. S. Kerketta Representing Secretary, Director, MoEF & CC, MoEF & CC, Government of Government of India, New Delhi India 26. Shri B. Bandyopadhyay, Representing Chief Advisor Advisor, (Cost), Deptt. of Expenditure, (Cost), Deptt. of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi Ministry of Finance 27. Shri Narinder Kumar Jain, Representing Chief Secretary, Director (WR & Env.), Government of Punjab Government of Punjab, SAS Nagar 28. Shri C. Chandra Mishra Representing Principal Resident Engineer, WRD, Secretary, WRD, Government of Government of , New Delhi Bihar

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

29. Shri Vijay Kumar P.G., Representing Secretary, WRD, Nodal Officer, WRD, Government of Kerala Government of Kerala, New Delhi 30. Shri M.K. Sriniwas, Member-Secretary Director General, NWDA, New Delhi Invitees and Officers from Ministry of WR, RD and GR

31. Shri Akhil Kumar, Joint Secretary (IC&GW), MoWR, RD & GR, New Delhi 32. Shri Nitishwar Kumar, Joint Secretary (Admn.), MoWR, RD and GR, New Delhi 33. Ms. Niharika Rai, PS to Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD & GR), New Delhi 34. Shri R. N. Dixit, Addl. PS to Minister (WR, RD & GR), New Delhi 35. Shri Sudhir Dive, Advisor to Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD & GR), New Delhi 36. Shri Kumar Gurung, PA to Hon’ble Minister (WR, RD & GR), New Delhi 37. Smt. Neeta Prasad, ADG, Press Information Bureau, National Media Centre, New Delhi 38. Shri Virendra Sharma, Senior Joint Commissioner (BM), MoWR, RD & GR, New Delhi 39. Shri S. K. Pandey, Spokesperson, MoWR, RD & GR, PIB, National Media Centre, New Delhi 40. Shri Mohit Sharma, Communication Specialists, MoWR, RD & GR, New Delhi Officers from Union Ministries & Departments 41. Shri K. C. Naik, Chairman, Central Ground Water Board, Faridabad 42. Shri N. K. Mathur, Member D&R, Central Water Commission, New Delhi

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

43. Shri J.S. Bawa, Chief Engineer (HP&I), Central Electricity Authority, New Delhi 44. Dr. Naresh Kumar, Chief Engineer, Central Water Commission, New Delhi 45. Shri Santanu Chowdhary Director, NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad 46. Shri A. K. Gupta, Dy. Director General, Geological Survey of India, New Delhi 47. Ms Neelima Alam, Scientist ‘E’, Ministry of Science & Technology, New Delhi 48. Shri Manmeet Singh Chowdhary, Manager (Env.), MoEF & CC, Government of India, New Delhi 49. Shri J. Bose, Director, Deptt. of Expenditure, MoF, Government of India, New Delhi 50. Dr. V. M. Chowdhary, Scientist/ Engg. (SG), NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad 51. Shri B. P. Yadav, Deputy, DGM, India Meteorological Department, Government of India, New Delhi Officers of State Governments 52. Shri Kunal Kunalshreshtha, Engineer- in-Chief, & HOD, Irrigation and WRD, Government Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow 53. Shri Hemant Kumar, Engineer- in-Chief, WRD, Government of Jharkhand, Ranchi 54. Shri M. Bangara Swami, Chief Engineer (ISW), WRD, Government of Karnataka, Bangaluru 55. Shri Ashok Kumar, Chief Engineer (Monitoring),WRD, Government of Jharkhand, Ranchi

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

56. Shri D. Rama Krishna Senior Technical Advisor (ISWR), Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad 57. Shri B. K. Nageswara Rao, Chief Engineer (ISWR), Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad 58. Shri Sriramaiah, Principal Technical Advisor, WRD, Government of Karnataka, Bengaluru 59. Shri A. Varaprasada Rao, JD,GWD & OSD to Minister for WR Govt of Andhra Pradesh, Velagapudi 60. Shri Abhishek Sharma, OSD to Minister (Tourism and Irrigation), Government of Uttarakhand, Dehradun 61. Shri M.P. Samaria, Superintending Engineer, WRD, Government of Rajasthan, Jaipur 62. Shri N. Veera Pratap, Executive Engineer (ISWR), Government of Andhra Pradesh, 63. Shri Y.M. Gopalakarishna, Deputy Executive Engineer, (I&CAD) Government of Telangana, Hyderabad 64. Shri Sunny Chaudhary, Sub Divisional Engineer, WRD, Government of Punjab 65. Ms Kamana Jha, Liaison Officer, WRD, Government of Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi 66. Shri Anurag Sharma, Assistant Engineer, Government of Telangana, New Delhi Officers from NWDA 67. Shri R. K. Jain, Chief Engineer (HQ), New Delhi 68. Shri N. C. Jain, Chief Engineer (North), Lucknow 69. Shri K.P. Gupta, Director (Technical), New Delhi

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Minutes of 15th Meeting of Special Committee for ILR

70. Shri Muzaffar Ahmad, Superintending Engineer, New Delhi 71. Shri B.L. Sharma, Superintending Engineer, Bhubaneswar 72. Shri C. P. S. Sengar, Superintending Engineer, 73. Shri Narendra Kumar, Director (Admn.), New Delhi 74. Shri R.K. Sinha, Director (Finance), New Delhi 75. Shri R.K. Kharbanda, Deputy Director, New Delhi 76. Shri K.K. Srivastava, Deputy Director, New Delhi 77. Shri Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Executive Engineer (HQ.), New Delhi 78. Shri Anil Kumar Jain, Deputy Director New Delhi 79. Shri K. K. Rao, Deputy Director, New Delhi 80. Shri Nizam Ali, Consultant New Delhi

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Annex-II

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Annex-III

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Annex-IV

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53