RAS question
The Indira Gandhi Canal was originally known as:
Correct answer: (C) Rajasthan Canal.
The Indira Gandhi Canal was originally known as the Rajasthan Canal before its name was changed in 1984.
Explanation
The Indira Gandhi Canal is the renamed Rajasthan Canal. A World Bank Group document describes the Indira Gandhi Canal Project as one of India's biggest canal projects and notes that it was designed to bring water from the Himalayas to the Thar Desert, transforming large stretches of western desert terrain into cropland. Its naming history is the key point: the project was "Earlier known as Rajasthan Canal" and its name was changed in 1984. Therefore, option C is correct. The standard exam detail is that the renaming followed Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984 and that Kanwar Sain conceived the project in 1948.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Gang Canal is a separate older canal in Sri Ganganagar, not the earlier name of the Indira Gandhi Canal.
- (B) Thar Canal sounds plausible because the project serves the Thar Desert, but the World Bank Group identifies the earlier name as Rajasthan Canal, not Thar Canal.
- (D) Bhakra Canal belongs to a different canal system, while the Indira Gandhi Canal's earlier name was Rajasthan Canal.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan's irrigation geography, especially the identity and history of major canal projects. It recurs in RAS because canals such as the Indira Gandhi Canal are central to questions on desert agriculture, regional development and water-resource planning.