Brahmaputra Board

Brahmaputra Board, a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament in 1980 and placed under the Ministry of Water Resources of the central government, is well-known since its inception for hitting media headlines for the wrong reasons. The jurisdiction of the Board includes both the Brahmaputra Valley as well as the Barak Valley, and covers all states of the North Eastern Region including Sikkim, apart from West Bengal which also falls under Brahmaputra basin. Given this large geographical jurisdiction, the Brahmaputra Board naturally has a large number of stakeholders. The Board consists of 21 Members  - four full-time and 17 part-time – representing seven North Eastern states, the North Eastern Council, the central ministries and departments of Water Resources, Agriculture, Finance, Power and Surface Transport, Central Water Commission, Geological Survey of India, India Meteorological Department and the Central Electricity Authority. There is also a representative of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, apart from the Secretary, Irrigation & Flood Control Department of Sikkim, the Secretary, Irrigation & Waterways Department of West Bengal. Going through its official website (which doesn’t appear to be updated), one finds that its Mission statement talks about regulation and development of Inter-State Brahmaputra and Barak Valleys by planning and such other measures so as to achieve development and utilization of water resources of Brahmaputra. Its Vision statement on the other hand speaks about integrated management of flood and river basins of interstate and international rivers of the Northeastern Region by involving expertise of domain experts, state of art knowledge and technology, working closely with the various state governments and other stake-holders. But, the reality is that though Brahmaputra Board has a number of ambitious schemes which it has been implementing despite facing various hurdles, there is very little dissemination of its activities for understanding of the people of the region. Additionally, the elected members of the region – whether in Parliament or in the respective State Legislative Assemblies – too do not appear to be taking much interest in the activities and functioning of such an important organization. The Board, which is currently functioning with only half of its sanctioned strength, should be more proactive in interacting with the community.