The member secretary of the river inter-linking task force, C D Thatte, has cited dissension with chairperson Suresh Prabhu and resigned. Thatte, a former secretary with the ministry of water resources, had not been attending taskforce meetings since July this year.

Thatte had reportedly been upset with Prabhu's style of functioning. He had opposed the hiring of Engineers India Limited as consultants to prepare terms of reference for the detailed project reports, preferring instead the Central Water Commission; on this, Thatte was overruled.

The resignation has had an immediate effect on the task force. A meeting with "Stakeholders having interest in the programme of interlinking rivers' on December 23 in Delhi has been indefinitely postponed "due to unavoidable circumstances'.