suresh Prabhu, chairperson of the task force on interlinking of rivers, has resigned from his post. The action was necessitated as Prabhu has filed his nomination to contest the coming general elections from Maharashtra's Rajapur constituency. He said he did not want to hold any "office of profit' now. "What if someone filed a litigation? So I decided to resign on my own,' media reports quoted him as saying.

The resignation comes at a time when the task force had to present its action plan-ii pertaining to the Union government's multi-crore river networking scheme. But Prabhu insisted that it would not affect the work. He said he had already prepared a report that was to be submitted to the Supreme Court this month.

Meanwhile, Goa has become the first state to implement the scheme. On February 23, chief minister Manohar Parrikar inaugurated the project linking Chapora and Assnora rivers in the Madei basin. The Rs 2.5-crore venture will provide 62.5 lakh cubic metres additional water to Assnora water works.

In contrast, Kerala water resources minister, T M Jacob, voiced his government's opposition to the interlinking scheme during his recent visit to Delhi. The Kerala government has asked the National Water Development Agency to drop the Pampa-Achankovil-Vaipar link project from the river networking agenda. The project aims to link Kerala's Pampa and Achankovil rivers with Tamil Nadu's Vaipar river.