The Government today took the first step towards building a ‘‘consensus’’ around its dream of interlinking 37 rivers in the country. Perceived as the biggest infrastructure project in the world, 80 civil society representatives will be divided into two communities — one to study the feasibility of the project and ‘engage’ with the government, and the other to study viable alternatives to it.The two groups are expected to meet at Wardha a month later to finalise the agenda. ‘‘We need a system to involve civil society not just in water but nuclear issues and other matters,’’ said head of Development Alternatives Ashok Khosla who chaired today’s meeting with World Wildlife Fund (WWF).This came after some NGOs held a debate on e-mail on the possibility that holding consultations would mean that the government project was being legitimised.A presentation by head of the government task force Suresh Prabhu cleared that 20 years of research and studies by various commissions and experts were locked away and needed to be brought out for public scrutiny.The debate was sparked by doubts on the very premise of the mega project — whether There was any scarcity of water in the nation or was it just man-made?‘‘Right now, the Government is both executive and independent assessor,’’ said Jayanto Bandyopadhyaya, an expert on water.Fears were also expressed that this would be another cover-up operation considering that the Government’s past record on implementation of smaller projects had not been encouraging.A need was felt to assess how long it took to implement projects like Narmada and what benefits have they brought before this project is begun. ‘‘Nobody talks about the benefits of Bhakra Nangal and the Indira Gandhi canal in Rajasthan,’’ said Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources Radha Singh.There were also doubts on whether the Government is serious about taking the project all the way or whether it was just a political stunt before elections. Or whether the next government would be interested in it.
