Why in news?
The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
What are the problems in present set-up?
- With increasing demand for water, inter-state river water disputes are on the rise.
- The present Inter State River Water Dispute Act, 1956 that provides the legal framework to address such disputes has many drawbacks.
- Under the present Act, a separate Tribunal has to be established for each dispute.
- There are eight inter-state water dispute tribunals, including the Ravi and Beas Waters Tribunal and Krishna River Water Dispute Tribunal.
- Currently there is no time limit for adjudication or publication of reports.
- Only three of the eight tribunals have actually given awards accepted by the states.
- Tribunals like those on the Cauvery and Ravi Beas have been in existence for over 26 and 30 years respectively without any award.
- There is no upper age limit for the chairman or the members.
What are the proposals of the new bill?
- The bill proposes a single standing tribunal with multiple benches instead of multiple tribunals that exist at present.
- The total time period for adjudication of dispute has been fixed at maximum of 4.5 years.
- The decision of the Tribunal shall be final and binding.
- There is no requirement of publication in the official gazette
- As per the proposed bill, the Tribunal shall have one chairperson, one vice-chairperson and not more than six other members.
- It limits the tenure of the chairperson to five years or till they attain the age of 70, whichever is earlier.
- The bill also proposes to introduce mechanisms to resolve disputes amicably by negotiations through a Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) before a dispute is referred to the tribunal
- DRC to be established by the central government consisting of experts.
- It also provides for a transparent data collection system at the national level for each river basin.
- It also calls for the appointment of assessors to provide technical support to the tribunal.
- An agency to maintain data-bank and information system is to be authorized by central government.
Source: Livemint
