Maharashtra may not benefit from inter-linking: CM

Maharashtra chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde said prima facie the state was unlikely to benefit from the Centre's ambitious project of inter-linking of rivers.

Maharashtra chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday said prima facie the state was unlikely to benefit from the Centre's ambitious project of inter-linking of rivers.

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"Prima facie it has been established that the state will not benefit much from the inter-linking of rivers", Shinde told a delegation, led by Suresh Prabhu, chairman of the river inter-linking project.

Shinde told the delegation, which met him at Mantralaya here, that the state government was studying whether water can be made availabe to drought-affected areas by inter-linking of valleys, an official release said.

Prabhu said the state government's independent proposal should be put up before the river inter-linking action group.

At the same time, the state government was also considering the proposal put forward by Prabhu, Shinde said.

The meeting was attended among others by revenue minister Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar and irrigation minister Dr Padamsinh Patil.