DIVINITY DIFFUSES ALL DIFFERENCES

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om sai ram

--that's a wonderful report with sai grace!!

'sai bless u'

sai ram

--- swamy mahadevan <mahadevanvnswamy

wrote:

 

> Note: forwarded message attached.

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> saiisdivinelove

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> Fri, 2 Mar 2007 08:01:08 -0800 (PST)

> …DIVINITY DIFFUSES

> ALL DIFFERENCES

>

> THE CHENNAI CITIZENS’ CONCLAVE …DIVINITY

> DIFFUSES ALL DIFFERENCES

>

>

> Sai Ram. As devotees are well aware, Swami made

> an eleven day trip to Chennai in January 2007.

> While the journey was primarily for attending the

> Ati Rudra Maha Yagnam that Swami Himself had

> commanded be conducted in Chennai starting 19th

> January, Swami fulfilled many other engagements. An

> important one was gracing the Chennai Citizens

> Conclave held on 21st January in the Nehru Indoor

> Stadium.

> Prof G Venkataraman who went with Swami took

> extensive notes, based on which he gave two talks

> over Radio Sai. We reproduce below the transcripts

> of those two talks combined into one composite

> text, and supplemented with many pictures.

> In future issues, Prof. Venkataraman will cover

> other aspects of Swami’s trip, including the yagna

> and the trip itself.

>

> Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu,

> Southern India

> I wish to present a report on a

> historic public meeting that took place on 21st

> January, during Swami’s recent trip to Chennai. This

> meeting, formally called Chennai Citizens’

> Conclave, was held in order to express the

> gratitude of the people of the city to Bhagavan for

> saving this huge metropolitan city from the misery

> of its drinking water shortage.

> Before I start describing the proceedings of

> the Conclave, I ought to, for the record, first say

> a few words about the age long drinking water

> problem Chennai had, and what part Swami played in

> solving the problem.

> Chennai, formerly known as Madras, came into

> existence thanks to the British. Not many are aware

> that it was in Madras that the British first landed

> in India.

> It is only later that they went to Bengal,

> founded the city of Calcutta, which remained the

> capital of British India till New Delhi came into

> existence to mark the coronation of King George V

> as the Emperor of India.

> Interestingly, the Dutch landed around the

> same time at a coastal village about 65 km south of

> Madras, and that village is known as Sadras. Because

> the Dutch had to retreat, Sadras continues to

> remain a small fishing village to this day. In the

> case of Madras, the story is very different.

> Normally, major habitations take root near a

> source of water like a river. Madras on the other

> hand came into existence simply on account of a

> historical reason – the British landed there. Right

> from the beginning, the British recognised that

> drinking water was a problem. The first attempt to

> deal with this was to erect a small dam across a

> river known as Kosasthalayar. This was not much of a

> river in the sense water flowed in it only when

> there were rains, which usually came during the

> North East Monsoon [generally during October to

> December]. Unlike the South West Monsoon [June to

> September], the NE Monsoon does not always deliver

> that much rain, at least in the Tamil Nadu [TN]

> region, so water was always a problem. The water

> from the dam across Kosasthalayar was taken via a

> canal to a tank known as Red Hills Lake. By the

> way, in the very early days, Swami often used to go

> with His hosts for a picnic to the Red Hills area.

> The Fort St.

> George - once the seat of British power

> Chennaipattinam of the 17th century...

> The Basic Problem of Water

> In due course other water storage tanks were

> added, and they were all inter-connected.

> Initially, the water was used both for drinking and

> for agriculture. Later, most of the water was

> reserved purely for supplying drinking water, even

> as the city began to grow. As early as the fifties

> of the twentieth century, it became clear that

> growing as it was, and with no major source of

> water nearby, Madras was going to face a huge

> drinking water problem. Indeed, every time the

> rains failed, this problem became a harsh reality,

> the problems getting compounded as the city grew

> bigger and bigger.

> ... Becomes the

> city of Madras...

> ...And now the booming metropolis - Chennai

> Concerned citizens and officials did try

> to think of solutions, and soon it became clear

> that the only way to solve the drinking water

> problem was to somehow bring water from the Krishna

> river flowing up north in Andhra Pradesh. This

> realisation came quite early, even in the fifties.

> Conceptually, there was no difficulty in solving the

> problem – all it needed was a good long canal. As

> mathematicians would say, a solution existed. In

> fact a statement was made in Parliament many, many

> years ago that the Government would do something to

> solve the problem of drinking water for Madras by

> taking Krishna water to the city.

>

> The three southern states with the

> perennial water sharing problem

> But then the human Mind that is so very

> capable of finding solutions to problems is equally

> capable of obstructing solutions. What I mean is

> that the three States through which Krishna flows,

> had an argument among themselves as to who has

> rights over Krishna water. The States concerned

> are: Maharashtra where Krishna rises, Karnataka

> through which Krishna then flows, and Andhra Pradesh

> [AP] through which Krishna then makes its way to

> the sea, namely the Bay of Bengal.

> Water Rights

> The issue of sharing river waters is always a

> very sensitive one. A tribunal was set up to

> address the issue of how Krishna water should be

> shared and fix the quantum of water to be made

> available. The Tribunal gave its verdict. Known as

> the Bachawat Award after the Chairman of the

> Tribunal, it was agreed that together, the three

> riparian States would contribute 15 TMC of water

> from the Krishna river to Madras city to meet its

> need of drinking water. One TMC by the way stands

> for a thousand million cubic feet, a term used by

> the British to quantify water supply for

> agriculture purposes. It is roughly equal to 30

> million cubic metres of water.

> One million cubic metres can be visualised by

> imagining a tank that is 100 metres long, 100

> metres wide and 100 metres high. One TMC is equal

> to 30 such tanks, and Madras was to get 15 TMC.

> By the way, it was felt that of the 15 TMC

> released at the source, about 3 TMC would be lost

> in transit and the city would end up with 12 TMC

> which was good enough for meeting its needs. Well,

> that was what was decided way back in the sixties

> or seventies, I do not remember exactly.

> As everyone knows, there is always a huge gap

> been intensions and implementations. The Tribunal

> had given its verdict but now it was up to the

> administrations in the various States to come

> together and get going. As is to be expected, there

> were many hiccups, even as governments came and

> went, thanks to uncertainties of election politics.

> Meanwhile, the TN Government floated a big scheme

> called the Veeranam Project, intended to bring water

> to the city from the river Kaveri flowing in the

> South. There was a lot of fanfare, and I was

> serving then in the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic

> Research in Kalpakkam – this was in the early

> seventies. The Veeranam Project was a high profile

> affair but it died in a scandal without a whimper.

> So, the cloud of uncertainty over the water supply

> situation in Madras remained as dark as ever.

> Finally, several years and many discussions

> later, in 1983, an agreement was reached to bring

> Krishna waters to Madras. This was largely through

> the personal initiatives of the Chief Ministers of

> Tamil Nadu and of Andhra Pradesh, both of whom

> happened to be famous film stars before they

> entered politics. In Tamil Nadu, the man at the

> helm was the charismatic M.G. Ramachandran,

> popularly known as MGR, who played Robin Hood in all

> his films and endeared himself to the masses. In

> Andhra the top man was N.T. Rama Rao who too was

> quite popular as a cine star, and absolutely

> unorthodox where politics was concerned.

> Interestingly, NTR as the Andhra Chief Minister

> [CM] was known, had started his career in Madras,

> because in those days Madras was the only major film

> city in the South. He thus had a soft corner for

> the city, and declared that having drunk the water

> the city for decades, it was his duty to come to its

> help in its hour of distress.

> An Agreement is Reached

> Thanks to the bonds created by the tinsel

> world, MGR and NTR came to an agreement regarding

> the details of the supply of Krishna water to

> Madras. At that time, NTR was engaged in launching

> an ambitious scheme to make massive use of Krishna

> waters to enhance enormously agricultural

> production in his State. He was seeking to do this

> via a grand scheme known as Telugu Ganga, a network

> of canals that would carry Krishna waters to every

> nook and corner of the State. As a part of the

> larger and grand Telugu Ganga scheme, NTR agreed to

> build a canal from a reservoir in AP, known as

> Kandaleru reservoir to the border of Tamil Nadu,

> for bringing Krishna water to Madras.

> This canal was to serve a dual purpose; on

> the one hand, it would bring 12 TMC of water to

> Madras, and on the other, it would serve as a major

> irrigation canal for the southern Districts of AP.

> Of course, NTR was not doing it for free; TN had to

> shell out a hefty five hundred odd crores of rupees

> for the execution of this canal as its share. At

> that

=== message truncated ===

 

 

 

 

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