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New Delhi , Aug 28

THE Centre is trying to evolve a consensus on the national river linking scheme and has already initiated a dialogue with State Governments to allay any apprehensions about the project.

"The Chairman of the Task Force on Inter-linking of Rivers, Mr Suresh Prabhu, has been meeting State Chief Ministers and we are planning a Chief Ministers' conference to address their doubts and apprehensions about the scheme. We do not work with pre-conceived notions, we will take into account the concerns of all parties concerned," the Union Minister for Water Resources, Mr Arjun Charan Sethi, said at the Editors' Conference on Social Issues here.

Stating that the river linking scheme had already taken off with the Prime Minister announcing two projects on Independence Day, Mr Sethi said that the Task Force chaired by Mr Prabhu was expected to submit its report soon and suggest ways to fund the Rs 5,60,000-crore project. The two projects announced by the Prime Minister - Ken with Betwa and Parbati and Kalisindh with Chambal - would cost Rs 4,000 crore each and would be financed by the Government, the Minister said.

Mr Sethi said that once the Task Force submitted its report, the Government would call for tenders to prepare detailed project reports (DPRs) on all the links and 32 new dams. "We hope to complete the DPRs by 2005," he added.

He said the annual renewable fresh water available in the country was about 1,869 billion cubic metres (BCM) and the per capita availability was reducing due to increasing population.

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