Assam's parties against interlinking of rivers

The Asom Gana Parishad and other regional parties in Assam have termed the Centre's proposal to interlink major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, as a conspiracy to deprive the people of the state their share of water.

The AGP has decided to constitute a panel to go into the details of the issue and submit a report.

AGP president Brindabon Goswami said on Wednesday that though the party does not want to politicise the issue, it has reservations over the proposal.

"New Delhi has given people to understand that if the Brahmaputra is interlinked with other major rivers and tributaries in the country, the perennial flood problem in the state would be solved. But when the Centre constituted a task force to interlink the rivers, the drought in some states rather than the annual floods in Assam was given priority," he said.

There is enough reason to believe that the interlinking of the rivers is aimed at supplying water to the dry states by depriving states like Assam, he added.

The Asam Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad has already threatened to launch a massive agitation if the Centre executes the $120 billion project.

The project is aimed at ending the problems of regions that have either too much water or too little, Suresh Prabhu, former Union minister and head of the task force constituted by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has said.