Bihar govt to oppose proposed National Water Policy

At a time when JD(U)-UPA relation appear to be on an upswing, a senior Bihar minister today opposed the proposed National Water Policy mooted by the Centre and described the policy as 'intolerant'.
"We steadfastly oppose the Centre's unilateral bid to impose the proposed National Water Policy on the states in violation of the federal structure and a constitutional provision under which precious natural resource is a state subject," state Water Resources Department(WRD) Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary told reporters.
Describing the proposed policy as 'intolerant' in view of the Centre's alleged bid to treat water as a national resource and frame a legislation to regulate its sharing, he questioned its 'wisdom' to unilaterally decide to nationalise the resource at a time when there was no such legislation in place for regulating the use of other resources in the country.

"Why should the interests of states like Bihar suffer simply because it has abundance of water? ... Water is not the sole national resource in the country ... If Bihar has water, then other states too have coasts, port, coal, gold and diamond and other resources," Chaudhary, a senior JD(U) and close confidante of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, said.
The Centre should apply the same yardsticks to regulate use of these other resources too for the benefit of other states and not regulate water in isolation by framing the policy.
The policy is being worked out by National Water Resource Council headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Bihar government would adopt a consistent stand to oppose the proposed policy and would apprise the Centre with its objections in reply to the draft copy of the proposed policy circulated to the states, he said.