Bedti-Varada-Aghanashini river-linking project troubles yet again!

Protests against the river-linking project that is said to take away lives have begun right after CM Yeddyurappa announced it in the budget. However, this is not a new project. The project was proposed over two decades ago and was stalled after vehement opposition from the locals. The Bedti-Aghanashini-Varade river-linking project was also included in the country’s major rivers project devised by the then Prime Minister Vajpayee government. The Central Government had created a task force to prepare action plans for interlinking the riverbeds in 2002. The project cost and the source of investments were ascertained and suggested that the project be taken up in 2016.

The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) had also prepared a detailed report for the interlinking of the Bedti-Aghanashini and Varada rivers. According to the report, the dams must be built on the tributaries of Bedti river, and must the water from it must be filled in the Varade river-bed regions. River Varade will flow into the Tungabhadra River. The objective of the project was to provide water from this project to create irrigation facilities to the left-side banks of the Tungabhadra river. However, the project was defeated by the strong opposition from the people of Sirasi region. Now the same project has made a come back in the name of ‘Drinking Water’.