Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
Ankur Sharma 5 years
Ankur Sharma 5 years
IAS Parliament 5 years
Provisions of the bill not needed. Try to include about Dam rehabilitation improvement project, DHARMA portal. Keep writing.
Shantayya Swami 5 years
Kindly review it and provide your valuable feedback.
Dams are critical infrastructure developed for irrigation, power generation, flood moderation and supply of water for drinking and industrial use.
As such their safety has serious consequences for human life, ecology and public and private assets and a matter of great concern to the general public and becomes a national responsibility to take necessary steps to ensure it.
India has been struggling to put in place a uniform mechanism for safety of dams since early 1980s.
Starting with a Standing Committee under the chairman of the Central Water Commission in 1982, efforts were made to persuade states [cooperative federalism ]to legislate such a mechanism, since water is a state subject.
What is cooperative federalism ?
Cooperative federalism is a concept in which centre, state, and local governments interact cooperatively and collectively to solve common problems, rather than making policies separately but more or less equally.
Lack of cooperative federalism delayed enacting Dam safety bill:
1. Center efforts to make an uniform law could not turn fruitful because several states, like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Odisha, carry their past opposition to a central legislation on dam safety.
2. States objection is that water being a state subject, the central government is appropriating their powers over water and dam management in the guise of dam safety.
3. For Tamil Nadu, the cause of concern is clause 24(1) which provides for central control (through NDSA) over a dam owned by one state but located in another to prevent conflicts.
It was mere lack of cooperative federalism, Dam safety bill could not become law.
However, due to poor cooperative federalism to moot dam safety bill, nation had to bore the brunt of Kerala floods of 2018 and the Uttarakhand floods of 2013.
"In the case of Kerala, the High court had concluded that the disaster was aggravated because of operational failures of dams and those could have averted by bringing in Dam safety bill"
"In the case of Uttarkhand, People Science Institute, Dehradun, who headed a government-mandated investigation, conclusion that existing and under-construction dams aggravated negative impacts of the flood"
After witnessing UK and Kerala disasters, States including Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal demanded a uniform central legislation causing central government to initiate a central legislation for Dam safety.
What the Bill provides for ?
1. The Bill provides for a National Committee on Dam Safety (NCDS), with state representatives and specialists, for the purpose of maintaining standards of dam safety and prevention of dam failure-related disasters,
evolve dam safety policies and recommend necessary regulations.
2. Other tasks include establishing an early warning system and explore possibilities of providing compensations through insurance coverage.
3. There would be a regulatory body, National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA), to implement the NCDS's policies and guidelines, resolve issues between states and others and maintain a national data base on dams.
4. This authority would perform the role of a State Dam Safety Organisation for a dam owned by a central public sector undertaking or extended over two or more states or where a dam in one state is owned by another state to
eliminate potential causes of conflicts.
5. The Bill envisages State Committee on Dam Safety to ensure proper surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of all dams in a state for their safe functioning.
Its wisely been said, "Prevention is better than cure". Uk and Kerala floods emphasize the Dam safety bill importance and these disasters had dwindle the impact if with strong cooperative federalism
Dam safety bill could have enacted on time.
Going forward, all the states will learn the lessons and will work towards national welfare by strengthening cooperative federalism.
IAS Parliament 5 years
Try to stick to word limit. Information about the bill not needed. Definition about Cooperative federalism is not needed. Keep writing.
IAS Parliament 5 years
KEY POINTS
· Dam safety bill 2019 seeks to set up a National Dam Safety Authority with states’ representatives and specialists as members to prepare safety manuals and schedules for regular monitoring, emergency action plans, periodic safety reviews, and other related issues.
· Though India has the world’s third-largest tally of dams, next only to the US and China, it does not have any statutory framework to ensure their safety.
· The physical health of most dams have been steadily deteriorating due to aging and poor care. Close to 300 of the 5,600-odd large dams are more than 100 years old and over 1,000 others are above 50 years old.
· Many of the aged dams are earthen structures, made chiefly of locally available material, and, therefore, are vulnerable. Besides, their designs and safety aspects fall woefully short of modern norms.
· There have already been 37 major dam failures, the latest being that of the Tiware dam in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. It caved in last month, sweeping away an entire village and killing 23 people, besides causing other damage.
· Dams rehabilitation improvement programme will be helpful, where centre can help states to protect dams with the help from world bank. This needs a better cooperation from centre and states. DHARMA portal can be used to monitor the health of dams.
· Many states have been opposing a legally mandated Central role in this field on the plea that water is a state subject and the Centre cannot be allowed to usurp their right to manage it.
· Over 90 per cent of the dams are on inter-state rivers with multiple riparian states as stakeholders. In some cases, a dam located in one state is owned by another one. Tamil Nadu is a typical case in point.
· The law on the anvil seeks to resolve this issue by making the proposed dam safety Authority responsible for protecting such dams. This Authority can be trusted to uphold the legitimate interests of all stake-holding states.
· Since this Bill is still in transition to becoming a law, there is an opportunity to amend it to give the Authority a say in the management and release of water from different dams located in the same river basins.
· This provision would be particularly helpful in coordinating water releases from different dams with an eye on moderating floods of the kind which devastated Kerala last year.
praneetha 5 years
kindly review
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IAS Parliament 5 years
Good attempt. Try to include about recent dam failure, states lack resources to maintain health of dams, elaborate more cooperative federalism instead of issues on dams. Keep writing.
Mirudula Parthibarajan 5 years
Kindly review my answer, I wanted to know the area of improvement
IAS Parliament 5 years
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Areas of improvement - Try to write answers consistently, so that suggestions can be given.
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