Ken Betwa Interlink Project

26^thNovember 2019

Centre nudging M.P., U.P. on Ken-Betwa.

The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) is the River interlinking project aims to transfer surplus water from the Ken river in MP to Betwa in UP to irrigate the drought-prone Bundelkhand region spread across the districts of two states mainly Jhansi, Banda,Lalitpur and Mahoba districts of UP and Tikamgarh, Panna and Chhatarpur districts of MP.
Ken-Betwa is one of the 30 river inter linking projects conceived across the country.
Ken and Betwa rivers originate in MP and are the tributaries of Yamuna.
Ken meets with Yamuna in Banda district of UP and with Betwa in Hamirpur district of UP.
Rajghat, Paricha and Matatila dams are over Betwa River.
Ken River passes through Panna tiger reserve.
The project has been delayed due to political and environmental issues.

Facts for Prelims

Two Union Territories — Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli — will be merged into one and a bill in this effect will be tabled in Parliament.
The merger of the two UTs, located along the western coast near Gujarat, will be done for better administration and check duplications of various work.
At present, the country currently has nine UTs after the creation of the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
However, with the merger of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the number of UTs will come down to eight.

It is genetically-engineered rice that contains beta-carotene. Here, the traditional rice is changed by inserting bacteria and daffodil and maize genes into it.
It is called golden rice because of the golden colour of its grains.
It was claimed to be able to fight Vitamin A deficiency, which is the leading cause of blindness among children and can also lead to death due to infectious diseases such as measles.