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The Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat chaired the 37^th Annual General Meeting of NWDA Society and 21^st Meeting of Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers (SCILR) at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi today. The Union Minister also launched the 8^th India Water Week – 2024, an international level mega event and inaugurated its website during the meeting. The 8^th India Water Week will be held from 17^th to 21^st September, 2024 in New Delhi, on the theme “Partnerships and Cooperation for Inclusive Water Development and Management”.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti Shri Bishweswar Tudu, and the Minister for PWD, Govt. of Puducherry Shri K. Lakshminarayan along with the Secretary, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation; Chairman, CWC; ACS/Principal Secretaries of various states, Advisor to the Union Minister for Jal Shakti, representatives of various ministries/departments of Centre and States, nominated experts etc. The Minister of WRD, Govt. of Bihar Shri Sanjay Kumar Jha also addressed the meeting virtually.

The Union Minister for Jal Shakti, in his opening remarks, informed that water is one of the most important drivers for the Socio-economic development in the country and the development and management of the Water Resources has been one of the key priorities of the Government of India. Interlinking of Rivers (ILR) Programme is very important for enhancing water and food security of the country and would be helpful in providing water to drought prone and rainfed areas.

Shri Shekhawat highlighted the remarkable achievement of initiation of implementation of Ken Betwa Link Project (1^st ILR Project under NPP) in December, 2021. The project would be a boon for the Bundelkhand region. This will encourage states to come forward for the implementation of other link projects. He expressed satisfaction that States of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have come nearly on board and MoU amongst these two States and Centre for the implementation of the Modified Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal Link project is also likely to be signed soon. He requested all the states to be magnanimous towards arriving at a consensus for implementation of other link projects particularly the priority project i.e. Godavari-Krishna-Pennar-Cauvery link.

During the meeting, a detailed presentation was made on the agenda items of 37^th Annual General Meeting of NWDA Society and 21^st Meeting of Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers (SCILR) by Director General, NWDA. The status of various works and the pending issues/bottlenecks etc. for Interlinking of Rivers (ILR) projects, Annual Report & Audited Accounts for the year 2022-23 of NWDA and Intra State links were discussed at length. The representatives of states expressed their views/observations on interlinking of rivers projects discussed during the meeting. The meeting concluded with the closing remarks by chair and vote of thanks by DG, NWDA to the Ministers, participating members and the representatives of states.

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Anubhav Singh

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