The 15th Meeting of the Ganga Flood Control Board was held at New Delhi May 25 at Vigyan Bhawan under the Chairmanship of Salman Khurshid, Minister of Water Resources. Ministers dealing with Water Resources from the basin States of Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, U.P. and West Bengal; representatives from the States of MP, Himachal Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Uttrakhand and Delhi; representatives from some of the Union Ministries; Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources; Chairman, Ganga Flood Control Commission and other senior officers of the Ministry of Water Resources dealing with the issue were also present.
Responding to various issues raised by the participating States, Salman Khurshid assured Bihar and U.P. that soon he will visit Nepal to take up the issue of recurring floods in Bihar and eastern U.P. due to rivers originating in Nepal with his counterpart and other senior functionaries of the Government of Nepal. Shri Khurshid said that all possible assistance will be provided to Bihar in tackling the menace of recurring floods. He also assured U.P. of looking into its complaint regarding slow release of funds for its flood control schemes and suggested a joint meeting of the concerned officers from the U.P. Government and the Union Ministry of Water Resources to sort out the matter. West Bengal was also assured of all possible help in dealing with various issues related to Ganga flood control.
Salman Khurshid impressed upon the State representatives to look into the issue of declaring ‘Water’ as a national asset and in this context also referred to the recent observations of the Supreme Court of India so that this utmost important resource can be managed in a better, equitable, efficient and quicker way.
The 14th meeting of the Ganga Flood Control Board was held in June 2000.
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