Jal Shakti Ministry holds 3rd meeting of Ken-Betwa Link project steering committee

New Delhi [India], January 18 (ANI): The third meeting of the Steering Committee of Ken-Betwa Link Project (SC-KBLP) was held here on Wednesday.
Held at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital, the meeting was attended by representatives of both the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and officials of various Central Ministries and Niti Aayog. The meeting was chaired by Secretary, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
An official of the Ministry of Jal Shakti said the Ken-Betwa link project is critical for the water security and socio-economic development of Bundelkhand region.

"We have the responsibility of implementing this project in a time-bound manner using state of art technologies and know-how duly taking care of the Resettlement & Rehabilitation (R&R) of the project-affected people and conservation of the region, particularly the landscape dependent species of Panna Tiger Reserve," a Ministry official said.
During the meeting, deliberations were held on various agenda items covering follow-up actions on decisions taken during the second meeting, work plan for the year 2023-24, engagement of Project Management Consultancy, land acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) of affected villages, the establishment of offices of Ken-Betwa Link Project Authority, implementation of integrated landscape management plan prepared by Wildlife Institute of India for Greater Panna, financial powers of KBLPA and reimbursement to state on expenditure.
It was intimated to the committee that orders for the transfer about 5,480 hectare non-forest government land of Panna and Chhattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh have been issued by the state government for transfer to PTR for compensatory afforestation.
In addition to this, two wildlife sanctuaries namely Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary and Rani Durgawati Wildlife Sanctuary of Madhya Pradesh and Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary of UP have been approved by the state government for bringing them under project Tiger, said the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
A proposal for Constituting a committee to monitor the implementation of the R&R plan in transparent and time-bound manner was finalized during the meeting.
A Greater Panna Landscape council is also being constituted for implementation of the Landscape Management Plan (LMP) and Environment Management Plan (EMP) of the project. (ANI)