Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch Lal Krishna Advani on Tuesday pulled up the government for dragging its feet on the constitution of a special committee as commanded by the Supreme Court for interlinking of rivers -- an abandoned landmark decision of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.
Three months have lapsed since the judgment of a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia on February 27 that held that time is the essential factor and yet no committee has been set up, Advani noted in his latest blog, wondering if amicus curiae Advocate Ranjit Kumar, richly complemented by the court for his contribution in the case, would move a contempt petition against the UPA government's 'default'.
The operative portions of the 63-page judgment quoted in the blog gives the amicus curiae liberty "to file contempt petition in this court, in the event of default or non-compliance of the directions contained in this order."
The inter-linking of rivers is dear to Advani's heart because he counts it as among the three main achievements of the NDA government -- other two being the sincere bid for normalcy and peace with Pakistan and laying a firm foundation for a network of highways and rural roads.
The whole plan of inter-linking the major rivers was worked out by then union minister Suresh Prabhu, a trained chartered-accountant who has gone into political oblivion after losing election and parting company with his party, the Shiv Sena. He headed the task force set up to draw up the plan.
Advani writes that Prabhu met him recently and gave a detailed account of his painstaking exertions of holding more than 5,000 small and big meetings in all states of the country.
Besides, he set up a group of finance experts and eminent bankers, led by ICICI bank chairman K V Kamath, which presented very innovative and forward looking ideas for financing the project.
Prabhu told Advani that this group of experts were confident that they would be able to raise at least Rs 5,60,000
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