GUWAHATI: The Assam Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, August 13 approved the Assam Urban Water Bodies (Preservation and Conservation) Bill, 2024.
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The bill is to be introduced in the Assam Legislative Assembly.
This bill ensures the protection and conservation of water bodies within the Master Plan Areas of all towns and cities across the state. The state government believes that it will also improve local drainage systems.
The bill will have the following features:
- It will provide for the preservation, protection, rejuvenation, conservation, regulation, and maintenance of water bodies (which includes Natural water channels) falling within the notified Master Plan Areas of Assam
- All the water bodies within the Master Plan area shall be Scheduled and notified with details of the Dag numbers and Villages making it easier for all concerned to demarcate & protect them from the encroachers
- It will enable authorities to chalk out a plan of action along with the formulation of appropriate schemes and projects for the conservation and protection of the water bodies
- All information related to the water bodies shall be uploaded to a GIS portal, which will bring transparency regarding the water bodies
- All private Water Bodies with an area of 2 acres or more and all community water bodies/ponds/tanks including those belonging to religious institutions, irrespective of their size will fall under the ambit of this bill except Private Water Bodies having an area less than 2 acres and those located in areas notified as Reserved Forest/Wildlife Sanctuary/National Park
- Protection and conservation of Water Bodies will also strengthen the local drainage system by strengthening the retention capacity of the Water Bodies thereby mitigating the issue of flash floods in towns and cities of Assam
- There will be two levels of committees under this Bill- one at the District level and one at the State level. The district-level committee shall undertake a detailed survey for identification of all water bodies for publication in the Schedule
- After the Act comes into force, no authority shall allot or initiate any action for allotment of any land identified as Water Body without prior approval from the State Level Committee, while activities such as debris dumping, construction, etc shall be barred
- Violation of any of the provisions of the Act will be a punishable offence with provisions for three years imprisonment or with a fine up to ₹1,00,000 or both. Further, the offender shall have to restore the water body to its original position
