Restructuring of Brahmaputra Board Act A decision for restructuring Brahmaputra Board was taken in the year 2011 and the Ministry constituted a nodal group in October, 2011 which suggested to set up an autonomous self-contained Authority in place of Brahmaputra Board. A policy document on restructuring of Brahmaputra Board into a basin authority was circulated to all North Eastern States and West Bengal for their comments and views in July, 2012. After incorporating all the view points of the State Governments/ Stakeholders, the draft Bill named North East & Brahmaputra River Rejuvenation Authority (NEBRRA) was prepared. An Intra Ministerial Group was constituted by the Ministry to review all aspects of the Draft Bill and the committee finalized the draft Bill on 11.2.2014. The draft Bill on NEBRRA was circulated to all the North Eastern States and West Bengal in 23.02.2015 for their comments and views. All the basin States agreed with the proposal of NEBRRA and the comments received were incorporated in the draft Bill. Meanwhile, with a view to make a self-reliant entity, a decision has been taken in the Ministry to form a Corporation in place of earlier proposed structure of NEBRRA. Accordingly, a revised Bill has been drafted with a proposal to constitute a Corporation named Brahmaputra Barak North-East River Development Corporation (BBNERDC). The draft BBNERDC Bill, 2016 has been circulated to all concerned States / Ministries/ Departments for their views on 8th June, 2016. Reminders have been issued on 30.6.2016 and 12.7.2016. This information was given by Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan in a written reply in Lok Sabha today. Samir/jk
