Respected Madam, teachers and my dear friends, good morning to you all. I have come here to speak a few words about nationalisation of rivers. Why to nationalise rivers?
Our country, India, is predominantly an agricultural country. The livelihood of most of the people depends on agriculture. Though there are many rivers in the northern parts of our country, which never go dry, they are not of much use to agricultural activities in the south. As a result, we only witness floods in some parts and famines in other parts.
The great Tamil poet, Bharathi had a dream of uniting Ganga and Kaveri. He also emphasized the need for the sharing of river waters. He said,
and thus sowed the seed for the linking of rivers.
Late Sri.C.P.ramaswamy Iyer also had a plan to link the rivers Ganga and Kaveri. He had once said that by linking the rivers – Ganga, Thungabadra, Krishna, Saraswathi and Kaveri – not only the country will prosper but also it will enable the people to get united thus bringing about the national integration.
Sharing of river waters should be made mandatory legally by our Government. All the rivers should be nationalised just as the banks were nationalised years ago. If this is done, without any disparity between states, water can be used to the optimum level, much to the satisfaction of the, so-far-deprived farmers.
Once the plan of linking of the rivers is executed, every state will get its share of water without any hitch. We can also have inland transport through water. In this process, we can even save a sizeable amount of foreign exchange on gas, petrol, etc.,
How to complete this mammoth project as it will involve a very huge expenditure? 1. We can seek the help of the World Bank for Financial assistance and 2. the Government can also think of issuing Bonds to raise loans.
Let us all sincerely hope that poet Bharathi’s dream will come true soon.
Thank