CWC, CIC draw swords over info
The Central Water Commission(CWC) is on a war path with the Central Information Commission (CIC) over their refusal to make public the guidelines under which it makes assessments of backwater flooding caused by the building of large dams and hydroelectric projects.
The CIC has termed their refusal to disclose this information as working against the larger public interest and, in a first time order, asked them to provide details on this case.
Water expert Swarup Bhattacharya had filed an RTI demanding the CWC provide them with details of the guidelines used to undertake backwater studies in dam construction. Mr Bhattacharya had also sought a copy of the backwater impact study on the Almatti Dam being constructed in Karnataka, especially in the context of a government tribunal having allowed the dam’s height to be raised from 524.25 to 519.6 metres. Mr T. Shivaji Rao, director of the Centre for Environment Studies, GITAM University, has already warned that raising the height of the Almatti Dam will result in inundation of several districts in Maharashtra located on the upstream side of the dam.
CWC member RC Jha explained, “We are willing to release documents of all projects that we undertake for ourselves. But information of projects undertaken for different state governments must be sought from the states.”
In a sharp riposte, information commissioner Sushma Singh told the CWC that “since the sought information is now held by the CWC, irrespective of who commissioned a project, it must be placed in the public domain.”
Backwater studies are important because they highlight the impact of reservoir on upstream areas which are getting increasingly flooded due to torrential rains.
The CIC cited the recent examples backwater flooding in Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh caused by unprecedented flooding and backwaters in Srisailam in 2009 and flooding in the backwaters of the Ram Ganga dam which flooded the city of Moradabad in 2010.
Manoj Misra, associated with saving Yamuna, regretted that “more and more dams being constructed without any detailed impact assessments.”
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