NATIONAL RIVERS LINKING - MANY HAD DREAMS, ONLY CHANDRABABU NAIDU COULD DO IT Interlinking of Rivers in India: Sir Arthur Cotton, popularly known as Cotton Dora in Godavari delta for his outstanding contribution towards Dowleswaram  anicut at Rajahmundry on Godavari is the first irrigation engineer from Madras presidency who came with the idea of rivers and canals linking for cost effective transport and to address drought and water shortage particularly in southern parts of India.   Sir Cotton’s contributions include aqueduct on Krishna at Vijayawada, Dam on Kaveri near Trichy  in TN. His contributions to Godavari delta and Konaseema are so good, due to which people treat him as a god and one can find many statues of Sir Arthur Cotton in many Godavari districts villages.   Though he took up few canal navigation projects successfully, the river linking did not materialize.     After 100 plus years, in 1970 again the river linking proje...