Inter-state River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017

• The government has introduced Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in Lok Sabha.

Highlights of the bill:

• The Bill proposes a Single Standing Tribunal (with multiple benches) instead of existing multiple tribunals, which shall consist of one Chairperson, one Vice-Chairperson and not more than six other Members. While the term of office of the Chairperson is five year or till he attains the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier, the term of office of Vice Chairperson and other member of tribunal shall be co-terminus with the adjudication of the water dispute.
• The Bill also provides for the appointment of Assessors to provide technical support to the tribunal. They shall be appointed from amongst experts serving in the Central Water engineering Service not below the rank of Chief Engineer.
• The total time period for adjudication of dispute has been fixed at maximum of four and half years. The decision of the Tribunal shall be final and binding with no requirement of publication in the official Gazette.
• The Bill also proposes to introduce mechanism to resolve the dispute amicably by negotiations, through a Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) to be established by the Central Government consisting of relevant experts, before such dispute is referred to the tribunal.
• The Bill also provides for transparent data collection system at the national level for each river basin and for this purpose, an agency to maintain data-bank and information system shall be appointed or authorized by Central Government.

Major water disputes in India:
Krishna water dispute
First KWDT:
Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) is a tribunal set up by the government of India in 1969 under the Interstate River Water Disputes Act of 1956 to resolve the disputes between the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh over sharing of Krishna river water. The dispute was mainly about the inter-state utilization of untapped surplus water. The Krishna Tribunal reached its decision in 1973, and the award was published in 1976. The award contended based on 75% dependability that the total quantum of water available for distribution was 2060 TMC(thousand million cubic feet). According to this Andhra Pradesh got 800 TMC of water, Karnataka 700 TMC and Maharashtra 560 TMC.
Second KWDT:
In April 2004, the second KWDT, was constituted by the Government of India following requests by all three states. This tribunal has started its proceedings from 16.07.07.The allocation of available water was done according to 65% dependability, considering the records of flow of water for past 47 years. According to KWDT II, Andhra Pradesh got 1001 TMC of water, Karnataka 911 TMC and Maharashtra 666 TMC. Next review of water allocations will be after the year 2050.
Godavari Water Dispute:
The Godavari Tribunal commenced hearings in January 1974, after making its award for the Krishna case. It gave its final award in 1979, but meanwhile the states continued negotiations among themselves, and reached agreements on all disputed issues. Hence the Tribunal was merely required to endorse these agreements in its award.
The Cauvery dispute
The core of the Cauvery dispute relates to the re-sharing of waters that are already being fully utilized. Here the two parties to the dispute are Karnataka (old Mysore) and Tamil Nadu (the old Madras Presidency). The Cauvery Water Dispute tribunal was constituted on June 2, 1990 under the ISWD Act, 1956. The Tribunal reached the decision that Karnataka must release 205 TMC of water from the Cauvery reservoirs to Tamil Nadu on a monthly basis. Karnataka rejected the ruling of the Tribunal stating that the Tribunal issued a decision that was not implementable. The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal announced its final verdict on 5 February 2007. Tamil Nadu appears to have been accepting the verdict while the government of Karnataka, unhappy with the decision, filed a revision petition before the tribunal seeking a review. On the direction of supreme court, union government issued final award which makes an annual allocation of 419 tmcft to Tamil Nadu in the entire Cauvery basin, 270 tmcft to Karnataka, 30 tmcft to Kerala and 7 tmcft to Puducherry. This dispute refused to die between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
 

By: Vishal