{"id":36033,"date":"2018-11-01T13:13:39","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T07:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=36033"},"modified":"2018-11-01T13:13:39","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T07:43:39","slug":"a-stronger-river-referee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-stronger-river-referee\/","title":{"rendered":"A stronger river referee:"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/inter-state-river-water-disputes-amendment-bill-2017-a-stronger-river-referee-4761698\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A stronger river referee<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: (Indian Express, Editorial)<\/span> <b>Inter-State River Water Disputes gets a new Bill<\/b> <b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government introduced the long-awaited Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill 2017.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Interstate Water Disputes Act 1956, has been amended about half a dozen times.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The amendments have stuck to a template, which relies exclusively on tribunals for expeditious resolution of river disputes. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disputes have recurred, there have been long delays in adjudication and states have not complied with verdicts of the court.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the current bill has provisions solve the disputes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Solutions:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bill proposes a permanent Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal (ISRWDT).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the current arrangement, tribunals are formed when a river water dispute arises which are dispute-specific.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ISRWDT will be an eight-member body comprising serving Supreme Court and high court judges.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will have a chairperson and a vice-chairperson.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The members will retire when they are 70 \u2014 there was no such limit earlier.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each dispute will be referred to a three-member bench and resolution will be time bound.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At least on paper, the entire process is restricted to five-and-half years, taking into account all extensions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is almost no limit on extensions in the current arrangement.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bill provides for a DRC (Disputes Resolution Committee) to enable ex-ante negotiated settlements, in place of earlier mediation by the Centre.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Challenges<\/b><b>:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The benefits of the bill depends on the mechanism\u2019s efficiency.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the government is ill-equipped to offer competent and resilient mechanisms. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bill doesn\u2019t fully recognize the need to plug holes in the larger ecosystem of interstate river water sharing, development and governance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In any case, the challenge is not about gathering data and information, but more about states agreeing over a particular piece of data.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The challenge is also about tapping the data to produce knowledge that can be used for decision-making.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bill no doubt holds promise for tightening and improving adjudication.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A stronger river referee: (Indian Express, Editorial) Inter-State River Water Disputes gets a new Bill Context: The government introduced the long-awaited Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill 2017. Introduction: The Interstate Water Disputes Act 1956, has been amended about half a dozen times. The amendments have stuck to a template, which relies exclusively on tribunals&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-stronger-river-referee\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A stronger river referee:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700796920,"cached_date":1704738638},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}