Brahmaputra Board to be restructured: Bharti

The bill to restructure Brahmaputra Board is likely to be introduced in the upcoming Parliament session, to improve its efficiency and functioning to control floods, erosion and landslides caused by the river and its tributary in the north east.
The move to restructure the board into the North-East Brahmaputra River Rejuvenation Authority (NEBRRA) comes in the wake of Northeastern States expressing their dissatisfaction over the functioning of the Brahmaputra Board and sought revamping it, Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti said.
She was speaking on the sidelines of the eighth meeting of the board's High Powered Review Board here today.

"Definitely. It may be possible," she replied to a query on whether the bill for restructuring the Brahmaputra Board would be introduced in the next session of Parliament.
Earlier, addressing the meeting, Bharti said that people in Northeastern states have demanded for revamping the Brahmaputra Board.
"People wanted total change in the Brahmaputra Board planning. People, in general, said that they were not satisfied and unhappy... So, we have to make changes in the thinking, planning and strategy," Bharti said.

The NEBRRA draft bill has already been circulated to the Northeastern states for their views.
According to the draft, the proposed Authority will be mandated to coordinate development and management of water, land and related sources to maximise economic and social welfare without compromising with the ecosystem of the Brahmaputra Valley.

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.
Bharti also stressed the need for protection of Majuli Island located in Brahmaputra river in Assam, which is affected by erosion and sought assistance from the State Government for declaring it as a World Heritage Site.
Later, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who participated in the meeting told reporters that his government does not have any issue with restructuring of the Bramhaputra Board, but raised reservations over construction of dams in the neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh.

"We have reservations about construction of any dams in Arunachal Pradesh without making thorough investigations and not about the formation of a new authority," the Chief Minister said.