UP Assembly passes bill to set up water management body

Uttar Pradesh Assembly today passed by voice vote the UP Water Management and Regulatory Commission Bill, 2014, which will pave the way for the setting up of a body which would suggest ways and means for judicious utilisation of water.
A commission along the same lines had been constituted in 2008, but the Samajwadi Party government, after coming to power in 2012, had dissolved the same.
Pressing for the passage of the bill, irrigation minister Shivpal Singh Yadav said that the earlier panel was so powerful, even the government had no say in its running and, therefore, that one had been dissolved with a new one now proposed in its place.

The proposed regulatory body would suggest tarrif for the use of water for domestic, irrigation and commercial purposes while working under the state government, he said.
BJP's Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, however, opposed the bill, saying that the provisions contained in it would give unbridled power to the commission.
He warned that the proposed commission would create problems, not only for consumers, but also for the government in the days to come.
The House, however, rejected his suggestion that the bill be referred to a select committee for further deliberation and passed the same by voice vote.