In a follow up to the Supreme Court ruling to set aside the Punjab government's order quashing water-sharing agreement with Haryana, all Congress party MLAs and the Punjab congress chief captain Amarinder Singh sent in their resignation in protest. Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal too stated that the Centre has no right to decide on river water sharing while the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) asserted that no drop of water would be allowed to flow out of Punjab.
In the event of India breaching the World Bank-sponsored Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan has warned India with reprisals. Meanwhile, the World Bank asked both the countries to "agree to mediation" in order to settle on a mechanism for how the Indus Waters Treaty should be used to resolve issues. However, India decided not to take part in an arbitration initiated by the World Bank to resolve its dispute with Pakistan over two hydroelectric projects proposed to be built on cross-border rivers.
Regarding the Neyyar river water dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court framed the issues to be heard, which included whether the river can be classified as inter state. The apex court will also consider the important issue of whether domestic supply of water in Kerala has a first charge over the claims of Tamil Nadu for water under the Neyyar Irrigation project.
National Green Tribunal expressed unhappiness over steps taken to protect biodiversity of Western Ghats at Yettinahole project site by government agencies and asked the Centre and Karnataka governments to submit details of the project. The Tribunal also questioned the MoEF&CC for granting permission to cut trees in the project area without proper assessment of the damage caused to the Western Ghats.
Uttarakhand HC imposed a blanket ban on any construction within a radius of 2km and a ban on felling of trees within 5km-radius of major lakes in Nainital. The high court has also banned burning of fossil fuel within 10km from the glaciers; and all plastic bags and other such objects within 20km of the glaciers. The bench further directed that no new permanent constructions were to come up within a radius of 25km from the edges of all glaciers in the state and that all encroachments in these areas be removed.
This is a roundup of important policy matters from November 7-13, 2016. Also read news this week.