( 1 ) PURSUANT to the notice issued by this Court to all the States and the Union Territories in relation to the interlinking of the rivers, an affidavit has been filed by the Union of India and also by the State of Tamil Nadu. No other State or Union Territory has filed any affidavit and the presumption, therefore, clearly is that they do not oppose the prayer made in this writ petition and it must be regarded that there is a consensus amongst all of them that there should be interlinking of rivers in India.

( 2 ) IN the counter - affidavit filed on behalf of the Union of India, it has, inter alia, been stated that after the Rao Committees report was received, the Government of India has been studying and planning for interlinking of rivers for over two decades. It is also mentioned in this affidavit that the Ministry of Water Resources had made a representation on 5/10/2002 before the Prime Minister on interlinking of rivers and in that presentation the Deputy Prime Minister and other senior Ministers and officers were also present. It was suggested that a High Level Task Force can be formed which will go into the modalities for bringing consensus among the States. This affidavit