Chennai: The centre has no plans to transfer the subject of water from state list to concurrent list of the Constitution, Union Minister of State for Water Resources Vincent H Pala today said.

All the states had to agree for transfering water to Concurrent list and then only Parliament could take it up, he said replying to a question from reporters here on the sidelines of 'TN Water Summit-2010'.

On intra-state river linking, he said the Centre was ready to provide funds to link rivers within the state.

He also the Centre had not dropped the project for Artificial Recharge of Ground Water Level (ARGWL) through dug wells. "Seven states across the country have been identified for this project and Tamil Nadu is one among them", he said adding the Centre had allocated Rs 200 crore for the project.

Addressing the summit, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said immediate action was required for efficient management of resources for ensuring physical sustainability and improving the efficiency of water use to its optium level.

He said food security and impact of climate change were serious challenges and water was central to both.

"We are fully aware of the climate change and its impact on water. Almost all the studies point towards a definite impact on the hydrologic cycle, which could result in intensification of the temporal and spatial variation in the availability of water resources", he said.

Stating that there has been significant avhievements in respect of creation of irrigation potential, he said similarly considerable progress had been made in flood management.

"The ultimate irrigation potential of the country has been estimated to be about 140 million hectares (MHA) out of which more than 108 MHA of irigation potential has been created", he said adding that there was an urgent need to expedite the harnessing of the irrigation potential.

"As a matter of fact, we have to work towards creation of irrigation potential beyond 140 mha through better water management practices", said adding "This is a chellenging task".

Pala also urged the industries to actively participate in water conservation and improving the water use particularly through adoption of measures like reuse and recycling.

Speaking about Tamil Nadu, he said the state had been in the forefront in the development of water resources as also in initating measures towards adoption of better management practices.

"The total irrigation potential created in Tamil Nadu is about 81 per cent of state's ultimate irrigation potential against the national average of about 77 per cent", he said.