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In 2005, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) started a three-year research study on

MUKESH RANJAN

Congress general magic appears to have done the trick, as the Centre has worked out a special package of Rs 7,000 crores for Bundelkhand region comprising districts of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Madhya Pradesh (MP). The Union Cabinet is likely to clear it in its meeting on Thursday.

After a year-long intense campaign by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi that catapulted the backward Bundelkhand region into the national political discourse, the Cabinet will finally discuss tomorrow a comprehensive Rs 7,000-crore package that envisages large-scale irrigation and river-linking programmes.

CHENNAI: The World Bank recently gave its consent for a proposal to construct 17,000 houses under the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project, according to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

The government will move cautiously on interlinking of rivers keeping in mind environmental and ecological concerns, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

"The interlinking of river system is something which can help in expanding area under irrigation. But there are also problems. There are environmental concerns," the Prime Minister said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

A flood alert was sounded along the banks of Cauvery river and bathing banned in the famous tourist spot of Hogenakkal waterfall in the district on Wednesday following release of surplus water from dams in neighbouring Karnataka into the inter-state river.

Amid growing environmental concerns attached to the river linking project, an expert has come up with an "eco-friendly" method to connect the water bodies with grids so that states can share the resources according to their requirements.

Oct. 8: A day after the UPA government shelved the river linking project, the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, sang a different tune and said linking of rivers within the state could be useful.

The Congress-UPA government dumped the river linking programme, mooted by the former BJP-led NDA government, because of the AICC general secretary, Mr Rahul Gandhi

THE BJP on Wednesday locked horns with union environment minister Jairam Ramesh on interlinking rivers across the country, maintaining that the proposal, pursued vigorously by the NDA government during its tenure at the Centre, was the only real answer to the problem of recurrent floods, and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene a conference of chief ministers on the issue.

Sounding its opposition to the UPA Government

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