Dam Safety Bill

India has 1,065 large dams that are between 50 and 100 years old while 224 are over a century old, the Jal Shakti Ministry said on Monday. There are a total of 6,138 constructed and 143 under-construction dams in the country. Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Raj Bhushan Choudhary said the government enacted the Dam Safety Act, 2021 to address the challenges posed by ageing dams and to prevent disasters arising from dam failures. He said dams, apart from serving irrigation and power generation purposes, play a significant role in mitigating floods. According to the National Register of Large Dams (NRLD-2023 edition), compiled jointly by the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) and CWC, there are 6,138 constructed and 143 under construction dams which aggregate to a total of 6,281 large dams. Of these numbers, only 224 dams are more than 100 years old and there are 1065 large dams which are 50 to 100 years old. Choudhary said the governm

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said the PRAWAH river authority's inspection of the Mhadei basin is crucial for the state, as it will uncover the truth. The Central government constituted the Progressive River Authority for Water and Harmony (PRAWAH) last year to enable the compliance and implementation of the award and decisions of the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal. Members of PRAWAH began the inspection of the basin in Goa on Thursday in the presence of officials from Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka. In a post on 'X', the chief minister on Thursday said PRAWAH members will conduct a detailed site inspection of the Mhadei basin, and it will familiarise them with facts about the extent of work the Karnataka government has undertaken. "The inspection is crucial for Goa as it will uncover the truth before PRAWAH members. This is an outcome of our continuous efforts to protect Mhadei, which will strengthen our case and vindicate our stand," he wrote. Talking to PTI on Friday,

More than 6,100 people have already been evacuated from the city of 230,000, according to local authorities. Fifteen of 40 schools in the school had been flooded

Expressing concern over the mining blasts affecting the Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) dam in Srirangapatna, Mandya, the High Court of Karnataka on Monday imposed a ban on mining and blasting activities within a 20-km radius of the structure. The ban issued on Monday will be in force till the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad, conducts a dam safety survey. However, the HC has not fixed any deadline for the study to be undertaken under the Dam Safety Act, 2022. The HC had earlier made the State Committee on Dam Safety (SCDS) a party to the petition. The division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit were hearing a petition filed by one CG Kumar who had challenged the deputy commissioner's order that conversion of land for stone quarrying would be granted only after a trial blast was conducted by the Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Limited. Kumar had challenged this condition as being illegal. The petition was however converted to a public ...

The Sikkim government has decided to form a high-level committee to examine the Teesta Stage III dam breach which was triggered by a sudden cloud bust and flash flood on October 4 at Chungthan in Mangan district, Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang said. The state cabinet meeting held on October 17 decided to form a high-level committee comprising technical experts, financial experts and subject experts to examine the allotment process of Teesta Stage III, 1,200 MW project keeping in view the credibility, genuineness and technical know-how, financial solvency, of the consortium which was building the dam, he said. "To address the gravity of the situation and ensure accountability, the Cabinet has directed... to form a high-level committee comprising technical experts, financial experts, and other relevant subject experts," Tamang said in a Facebook post. The committee will examine the change in DPR before the allotment of the project vis-a-vis technical and financial aspects. It will

Decommissioning should be a policy option

Members said there was no legislative competence for the bill as they emphasised that water is a state subject

The proposed national agency should get more teeth

The bill was introduced amid protests by opposition parties including the Congress, TDP and AIADMK on various issues