Brahmaputra Board to be revamped and rechristened: Uma Bharti

PTI
SHILLONG, FEBRUARY 11

Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti today announced revamping and rechristening of the Brahmaputra Board to improve its efficiency and functioning to control floods, erosion and landslides caused by the river and its tributary in the north east.
Bharti, who chaired the high powered review board of the three decade-old body said the decision was taken in view of its ‘ineffectiveness’ to adapt to the changes in policies and technology that have taken place in the last 30 years.“We have to make it more effective. The board was formed in 1980, technology has changed so fast within the intervening 30 years. Whole approach has to be faster, more technical and more practical,” she said.
“I can declare with affirmation that today is the last meeting of the Brahmaputra Board. The next meeting will be held with a new name and new concept which will be announced within a few weeks’ time in consultation with the concerned ministries and all the states concerned,” she told reporters.
Views of each concerned state would be incorporated. “After taking the views, we will sit and again take every state in consideration and we will come with an announcement of new name and fast tracking policies,” she said.
The board, an autonomous statutory body, was set up under Brahmaputra Board Act in 1980 and was mandated to prepare a master plan for the control of floods and bank erosion and improvement of drainage in the Brahmaputra and Barak valley area covering almost all the eight north eastern states.
As the board was formed by an act of Parliament, she said some changes can be made within the ministry and some have to go through the cabinet.
Bharti welcomed the suggestion by Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on the need to have a river basin management in Brahmaputra and its tributaries as many people were dependent on the river, including in West Bengal, and had to face the problems of flood, erosion, landslide and siltation.

Technology for dams should not kill rivers

Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati today said that her ministry is not opposing construction of dams on rivers in the north east except that the technology should be safe and should not “kill” the river.
“We are not opposing any dam. I have told Central Water Commission, which comes under my ministry, to effectively design a dam which will also maintain the ecological flow of the river,” Bharti said on the sidelines of a high powered review board of the Brahmaputra Board here.
“The technology has to be very safe… we cannot kill a river,” she said.
Asked about the Subansiri dam in Arunachal Pradesh, she said “I think this has to be dealt with the sentiments of the people in mind.
“It’s not only the economic or technical sides. Sentimental sides are also in it and power ministry is taking its view,” she said.
Anti-dam groups have almost stopped construction of the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh for the last three years fearing environmental impact and displacement of people.

Gogoi urges Govt to constitute  Brahmaputra Valley Authority

PTI
GUWAHATI, FEBRUARY 11

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has urged Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti to expedite the constitution of the Brahmaputra River Valley Authority and delegate more powers to it for tackling the twin problems of flood and erosion in the state.
“The functioning of the Brahmaputra Board is not at all satisfactory and the Centre must accord priority to the setting up of Brahmaputra River Valley Authority which has been a long standing demand of the state,” the Chief Minister said during a meeting with the River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister last night.
The Chief Minister pointed out that the problem of erosion is more serious than flood and the state’s economy that hinges on agriculture would be adversely affected if erosion continues to erode the land mass permanently.
A holistic approach has to be adopted for tackling flood and more importantly the serious problem of erosion, the Chief Minister said, according to a release issued here today.Gogoi urged Bharti to sanction the flood management schemes submitted by the state government and to make it 90:10 funding.
He also urged her to clear the Rs 1,500 crore World Bank funded Assam Flood and Erosion Management Modernisation Project.
Gogoi asked Bharti for inclusion of erosion as natural calamity under the National Disaster Response fund.
The Centre must view erosion as a serious problem and bring it under the ambit of National Disaster Response Fund to provide the much-needed relief, he added.
The Water Resources Minister assured the Chief Minister that she would look into the problems in right earnest and take up necessary steps accordingly.