Political parties should stop playing dirty politics when it comes to the issue of water, said Union Water Resources Minister…
Uma Bharti (PHOTO: IANS)
Political parties should stop playing dirty politics when it comes to the issue of water, said Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti while asking state governments to adopt a national outlook to water management in the country.
Water is meant to douse the fires, but some politicians are using it to generate fires, the minister said, while appreciating the cooperative and mature attitude shown by the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in solving inter-state water disputes.
Bharti said some chief ministers are afraid of taking a stand favouring national interest because of political opposition in their state. She also urged opposition parties not to play politics and help state governments to amicably solve water-related issues.
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Bharti said the Centre is always concerned about inter-state disputes on water and tries to solve them amicably through persuasion. “I have decided that in future whenever I meet any state leaders on water-related issues I will also speak to the opposition there,” she said while inaugurating the fourth Jal Manthan, national seminar on water-related issues.
Referring to the interlinking of rivers, the minister urged officials of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to amicably solve pending issues related to Ken-Betwa link so that the Centre may go ahead with Phase I of the project. She said Maharashtra and Gujarat are cooperating with the Centre at a much faster pace to complete the Par-Tapi and Daman Ganga-Pinjal link projects.
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