Soon, a tribunal to settle interstate water disputes
PLAN New board’s decisions will be binding on the parties involved
The Union cabinet could soon approve a law to establish a single national tribunal to adjudicate water disputes between states, two people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
The tribunal, the Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal, will replace all existing tribunals on water disputes, and its orders, which will have to be issued within four-and-half years, will be binding on the parties involved in the dispute — both moves that will deal with disputes between states on water, some of which have gone on for decades, in a time-bound manner.
There are currently five tribunals hearing disputes between states on the sharing of river water.
The Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation has finalized the Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, after incorporating a majority of the recommendations made by a parliamentary panel.
The bill, which seeks to amend the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, was introduced in the Lok Sabha in March 2017 and subsequently referred to the parliamentary standing committee.
India has 20 major inter-state river basins and states have often sparred over the sharing of water. Some of these disputes have been going on for years. For instance, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been fighting over sharing water from the Cauvery for 27 years.
The revised bill proposes that a four-member panel comprising the Prime Minister or his nominee, the chief justice of India (CJI) or his nominee (a judge from the Supreme Court), the leader of
NEW DELHI:
years and counting: Punjab vs Haryana vs Rajasthan on Ravi-Beas
years and counting: Tamil Nadu vs Karnataka vs Kerala vs Puducherry on Cauvery
years: Maharashtra vs Andhra Pradesh vs Karnataka vs Madhya Pradesh vs Odisha on Godavari
opposition and the water resources minister will select the chairperson, vice chairperson and up to six members of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal. The original bill had proposed that the CJI would make these appointments.
“We have accepted the recommendation of the parliamentary standing committee to have a four member collegium to select chairperson and members. It will be on the lines of how the chairmen of agencies such as the Central Vigilance Commission are selected,” one of the officials mentioned above said.
Another important change in the revised bill involves reducing the time taken by the tribunal to adjudicate disputes to a maximum of four-and-a-half years.
“While the parliamentary panel had recommended that the time for adjudication of disputes should be reduced to two years, we decided to stand by our proposal of four-and-a-half years,” the official added.
The original 1956 law on such tribunals mentions a six-year time-frame but also added that the central government could extend this period indefinitely, till such time the tribunal submitted its report.
The draft bill also proposes that the decision of the tribunal will be binding on the disputing parties and will have the same force as an order or decree of the Supreme Court.
Before a dispute is referred to the tribunal it has to be first resolved amicably by a Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) that will be set up by the central government. If this fails to resolve the dispute within oneand-a-half years, the matter will be referred to the tribunal.
The ministry has accepted the suggestion to reduce the time period for referring a dispute that has not been settled by the DRC to the tribunal to one month from the earlier three months.
November 29, India and Singapore signed an agreement to deepen cooperation in maritime security and called for ensuring freedom of navigation in critical sea lanes such as Malacca, Sunda and Lombok straits — all connecting the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean via the South China Sea. Within days, China served a demarche to Singapore, whose Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is the current chair of Asean, virtually accusing this move as being one targeted at Beijing despite assurances to the contrary. The insecurities of the middle kingdom are bound to increase now with the heads of all 10 Asean countries here to celebrate 25 years of IndoAsean dialogue and witness the growing military might of India at the Republic Day parade (where all 10 are chief guests).
Despite Indo-Pacific being a normal construct with India and the United States being two ends
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