Pendency cases on river water sharing causing concern: Rajendra Singh
Hyderabad: Waterman of India Rajendra Singh on Saturday expressed concern over pendency of cases pertaining to rivers. However, the cases related to industrialists were resolved quickly, he said while participating in a national convention on rivers organized by Indian Peninsular River Basin Council and Indian Himalayan River Basin Council here. He underscored the need for […]
Hyderabad: Waterman of India Rajendra Singh on Saturday expressed concern over pendency of cases pertaining to rivers. However, the cases related to industrialists were resolved quickly, he said while participating in a national convention on rivers organized by Indian Peninsular River Basin Council and Indian Himalayan River Basin Council here.
He underscored the need for educating future generations about the importance of rivers. “In national capital Delhi, we have the Ganga River, which is polluted, and in the financial capital Mumbai, we have five rivers and most people don’t know about them,” he said.
He said a request was also made to the government to recognize the importance of rivers and added that Indians treat rivers as a mother. “Rivers flow freely and because of the greed of people the flow of these rivers is getting affected,” he said. The State government has also accorded priority for the irrigation sector to meet the requirements of drinking water and agriculture sector.
Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy, who was also present at the event, criticized the Central government for failing to protect rivers in the country. Many rivers were now polluted because of lack of proper mechanism to protect them on all fronts. However, the State government was taking necessary steps to protect rivers in Telangana and the Godavari River that is flowing in the State was a classic example. Apart from protecting rivers from pollution, the State government has also focused on improving greenery. Nurseries were also established to increase greenery in villages.
These initiatives helped the government in increasing greenery by three per cent in eight years. The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) was constructed in a record time in three years. “We have succeeded in controlling the migration of people from several districts in Telangana to other States after completing the construction of irrigation projects in the State,” the Minister said.
A tractor was allocated to each village to collect garbage from each house. This initiative prevented people from dumping garbage into water bodies, he said. Telangana Water Resources Development Corporation Limited Chairman V Prakash Rao and Sridhar Rao Deshpande, OSD to the Chief Minister also spoke on the occasion.
Godavari under danger
Environmentalist Rajesh Pandit said Brahmagiri, the origin of Godavari River and lifeline of six States including Telangana, was under danger as massive excavation was being carried out on its mountains.
“We have conducted a zoom meeting requesting people from six States to join hands to protect it. When excavation started, we felt insecure and informed the Collector who responded positively. A task force was also constituted. We are now demanding that all the mountains on which notified rivers have their origin should be declared as eco-sensitive zones,” he added.
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