(a) whether the silt in the major rivers in the country including Bihar is rising;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the river-wise details of expenditure incurred by the Government on desilting of the rivers during the last three years and the current year;
(d) the details of works undertaken with the said funds; and
(e) the extent of progress achieved alongwith the reaction of the Government in this regard?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES (SHRI VINCENT H. PALA)
(a) & (b): No specific study has been conducted to assess if there is a rise in the silt
in the major rivers in the country including Bihar.
(c) & (d): De-silting of rivers, in general, is not considered an economically viable
solution to the silt problem and is recommended only for selected reaches. The State Government
of West Bengal has taken up de-silting of certain rivers, namely, South Saraswati and Ichhamati
during the XI Plan period. An amount of Rs.2.72 crore has been released to the State Government
for dredging of river South Saraswati in the last three years. The dredging of river Ichhamati
has been undertaken by the State Government of West Bengal from its own resources. Recently,
another Drainage scheme for de-silting/ re-sectioning of rivers in Kaliaghai.-Kapaleshwari-Baghai
basin in West Bengal has also been approved by the Government to provide Central assistance to
the State Government of West Bengal under “Flood Management Programmeâ€. No central assistance
has been released for this scheme as on date.
(e) The excavation work of river South Saraswati (for a length of 43 km) was taken up by
the State Government in the year 2007-08 after release of first instalment of Rs.1.00 crore
of Central assistance. However, the scheme could not take off at a desired pace and reported
to be progressing very slow on account of land acquisition required for the work.