ABSTRACT
Following an order passed by the Supreme Court of India on 31 October 2002 in response to an application filed by a senior advocate, Ranjit Kumar in a public interest litigation on the basis of a reference made by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam of India, in his speech on the eve of India’s Independence Day, to the interlinking of rivers, the Government of India (GoI) passed a resolution for such interlinking and formed an eight (three full-time and five part-time)-member Task Force under the chairpersonship of Mr. Suresh Prabhu (see Chapter 3) to get thirty-seven major rivers (Shankari, 2004) interlinked by 2016. Basically, the scheme is ‘for transfer of water from surplus basins to water deficit basins for optimum utilization of water resources.’ (Lok Sabha (India), Press Release on Linking of Rivers, undated).
