MP to introduce bill over rivers' nationalisation
PANAJI
Goa's lone Rajya Sabha MP, Shantaram Naik, has given notice of a private member's bill for amending the National Waterways Act, 2016 in order to strike off six Goan rivers from the schedule of 111 rivers.
Naik has disclosed his intention to introduce the bill during the forthcoming winter session of Parliament.
Union Government introduced a bill in Parliament recently, entitled Nationalisation of Inland Waterways Bill 2016, which was passed by both the houses of Parliament and is now law of the land.
The Act has sought to nationalise 111 rivers in the country, which include six rivers of Goa namely Chapora, Sal, Mandovi, Zuari, river at Moida-Mapusa and at Cumbarjua.
Naik said that if the intention of the government was to make the rivers more effectively navigable, then the proper course would have been to allot some financial assistance to Goa government for purpose of undertaking dredging work instead of resorting to nationalisation of the six rivers which involves taking possession of the riverways by the Central government along with some unspecified area of land.
"Legal status of the land, on both sides of the banks of the six rivers is still not known. Whether by virtue of nationalisation of the six rivers a certain area on both sides of the six rivers is going to be the property of the Central government or what has not been made clear," Naik observed.
He added that the social impact of nationalisation of rivers and the funding pattern for operation thereafter has yet to be made clear to the people.
