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

Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation introduced Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in Lok Sabha today 14.03.2017. 

• 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.  

Inter-state river water disputes Resolution Mechanism at present:-

• Inter-state river water disputes are on the rise on account of increase in water demands by the States.
• The Inter State Water Dispute Act, 1956 which provides the legal framework to address such disputes, suffers from many drawbacks.
• This act was further amended in 2002 to include the major recommendations of ‘The Sarkaria Commission’. The amendments mandated a one year time frame to setup the water disputes tribunal and also a 3 year time frame to give a decision.
• Under this Act, a separate Tribunal has to be established for each Inter State River Water Dispute.
• Only three out of eight Tribunals have given awards accepted by the States, while Tribunals like Cauvery and Ravi Beas have been in existence for over 26 and 30 years respectively without any award.
• Delays are on account of no time limit for adjudication by a Tribunal, no upper age limit for the Chairman or the Members, work getting stalled due to occurrence of any vacancy and no time limit for publishing the report of the Tribunal.

• The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017 proposes to streamline the adjudication of inter-state river water disputes and make the present legal and institutional architecture robust.

Some of the River Disputes are:-

• Mahanadi Dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh: Odisha is accusing upstream state Chhattisgarh of building barrages and dams to store and divert too much water.
• Mahadayi Dispute among Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka: Goa opposes the building of upstream dams by the other two states.
• Dispute between Punjab and Haryana over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal: Punjab has been objecting to the diversion of Sutlej waters to Haryana through SYL.
• Krishna and Godavari water-sharing disputes between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, which will also spill over to Maharashtra and Karnataka, among other basin states.

• 	Name of Tribunal	States concerned	Date of constitution	Present Status
  1.	Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal	Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh & Odisha	April, 1969	Award given on July, 1980
  2.	Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal -I	Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,	April, 1969	Award given on May, 1976
  3.	Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal	Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra	October, 1969	Award given on December, 1979
  4.	Ravi & Beas Water Tribunal	Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan	April, 1986	Report and decision given in April, 1987. Clarification / explanation sought from the Tribunal by the party States. Also, a Presidential Reference in the matter is before Supreme Court and as such the matter is sub-judice.
  5.	Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal	Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puduchery	June, 1990	Report and decision given on 5.2.2007. A Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by party States in Hon’ble Supreme Court, as such the matter is sub-judice.
  6.	Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal -II	Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra	April, 2004	Report and decision given on 30.12. 2010.  The matter is sub-judice.
  7.	Vansadhara Water Disputes Tribunal	Andhra Pradesh &Odisha	February, 2010	Report and decision not given by the Tribunal. The matter is sub-judice.
  8.	Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal	Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra	November, 2010	Report and Decision not given by the Tribunal.

  
  
  Other Inter-State Water disputes
  Apart from the above mentioned disputes, the following are the other Inter-State water disputes
  • Indirasagar (Polavaram) Project, Andhra Pradesh
  • Babhali Barrage Issue
  • Mulla Periyar Dam Issue