Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Advocates for Water Management and River-Linking
GG News Bureau
Nagpur, 16th July. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari emphasised the importance of “water management” and river-linking projects in resolving the country’s water woes on Friday.
The BJP leader stated at the Dr C D Mayee ‘Krishi Tagya Puraskar’ awards function here that if irrigation is increased by 50%, no farmer in the country will be forced to commit suicide.
There was no shortage of water in India, he said, but “water management” was lacking. The irrigation potential of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha and Marathwada regions must be increased, the Union Minister said.
Irrigation experts should work on river-linking projects to provide water to the country’s arid regions, he said. Water scarcity was a problem in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Jharkhand, Gadkari added.
On the other hand, he added, water was being wasted in some parts of the country due to flaws in the inter-state water sharing mechanism.
According to the Union Minister, there are 36 proposed river-linking projects that can solve the country’s water problem to a large extent.
Speaking at the same event, NCP chief Sharad Pawar stated that a significant change has occurred in the country’s farming sector. The first file he received for clearance as Union Agriculture Minister in the UPA government was about the import of wheat due to a shortage in the country, he said.
By the time he left the ministry, he had succeeded in increasing production with the assistance of researchers, scientists, and farmers, and India had risen to become the world’s second largest producer of wheat, Pawar said.
Comments are closed.