The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) on Monday signed a contract with the Council of Scientific Industrial Research–National Geophysical Research Institute (CSIR-NGRI) to implement a pilot project on using advanced geophysical techniques to map shallow and deep aquifers. The project is being implemented under World Bank-funded hydrology project and would be implemented in Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over a period of 15 months. The total project cost is about Rs 44.39 crore, out of which the CGWB component is about Rs 16.98 crore and NGRI's is about Rs.

India today denied that China had diverted any water from the mighty river Brahmaputra while asserting that it was keeping a close watch on Chinese activities so as to protect national interest. "Various agencies of the government, including the NTRO and the National Remote Sensing Centre, are keeping a continuous watch and alertness over the tributaries on the Chinese side,’’ Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told agitated members in the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.

NEW DELHI: Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Monday said there was “nothing to suggest” that China was building dams to divert the waters of the Brahmaputra river towards its northern regions.

Replying to supplementary questions in the Rajya Sabha, Bansal said India has been assured by the Chinese government that all dams being built on rivers that flow into India are only for generating electricity, and will not store water.

Almost six years and Rs. 414 crore later, Delhi and Haryana are still wrangling over the Munak canal and the water that it was supposed to bring to the Capital. The impediments that got in the way included environmental clearances, monetary disagreements and bickering over how much water Haryana is supposed to release for Delhi.

The latest stand-off is over the release of 80 MGD of water that Delhi claims it should get apart from what is being released and Haryana's demand for the release of Rs.106 crore.

The State government, specifically the Public Works Department (PWD), has no clue as to what the farmers did with Rs.75 crore of Central funding meant for creating artificial recharge systems (ARS) in their agricultural fields.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report has found that only 21,214 out of 2.93 lakh farmers utilised the money to construct ARS, which defeated the objective, improving groundwater using rainwater run-off from their own agricultural fields.

‘Master plan for other 56 basins, sub-basins of the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys has also been taken up by the Brahmaputra Board’

GUWAHATI: Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources and Minority Affairs Vincent H Pala said that the Brahmaputra Board, a statutory body under the Ministry of Water Resources, had prepared a master plan for the Brahmaputra and all its tributaries after carrying out necessary survey and investigation, for planned development of the river with due regard to the development of irrigation, power and navigation.

GANDHINAGAR: A high-level committee of Government of India's (GoI's) finance ministry has cleared a proposal that would enable the Gujarat government to receive nearly 90 per cent of all funds over the new five-year plan, 2012-17, for completing the unfinished task of building canal network of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP). Well-placed Sachivalaya sources said, the proposal, made on the basis of a plea from Gujarat, would mean all desert zones of India would be treated as drought prone.

Minister for water resources Pawan Kumar Bansal is reported to have been horrified to have learnt of the macabre incident in which a mother, Qadeeran, and her youngest son, Rasheed, were killed by her two elder sons, Nafees and Anees, over a water dispute in Banda district of Bundelkhand.

Plunging groundwater levels would have only served to accelerate the situation but Mr Bansal is reported to have confided to close aides that even he was shocked that a water dispute would result in “matricide and fratricide”.

Even as Assam has renewed its campaign to get UNESCO World Heritage Site status for Majuli, one of the largest inhabited river islands in the world, some in the state are blaming the Archaeological Survey of India for the failure of its previous attempt. UNESCO had returned Majuli’s nomination for World Heritage Site saying it was “technically incomplete”. ASI had sent only two copies of nomination dossier instead of three as required. Worse, one of them had several pages missing. The World Heritage Committee has now asked New Delhi to send its revised dossier by September 30.

An aerial survey of the Ganga river in Bihar on Saturday brought Union water resources minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar closer to the alarming severity of the siltation and pollution in the river and need for more urgent remedies.

“I saw it (growing siltation) a very serious issue and we must take urgent measures soon to save the Ganga and reduce the constant threat of floods,” said Mr Bansal, whose survey of the river was in response to Mr Kumar’s request on April 17 for a personal familiarisation with the crisis