Two Bills, seeking to declare water stretches in five states as national waterways and one seeking to make it mandatory to place academic performance and annual accounts reports of five Central academic institutions, including Delhi University and Banaras Hindu University, were cleared by the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The Bills, National Waterways (Talcher-Dhamra stretch of rivers Geonkhali-Charbatia stretch of East Coast Canal, Charbatia-Dhamra stretch of Matai river and Mahanadi delta rivers) Bill, 2006 and National Waterway (Kakinada-Pondicherry stretch of canals and the Kaluvelly tank, Bhadrachalam-Rajahmundry stretch of river Godavari and Wazirabad-Vijayawada stretch of river Krishna) Bill, 2006 were passed by voice votes in the Lok Sabha. Replying to the discussion on the Bills, Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu said the first Bill will provide for declaration of the Talcher-Dhamra stretch of Brahmani-Kharsua-Dharma rivers, Geonkhali-Charbatia stretch of East Coast canal, Charbatia-Dhamra stretch of Matai river and Mahanadi delta rivers between Mangalgadi and Paradip in West Bengal and Orissa as national waterways. On the second Bill, Baalu said it will provide for the declaration of the Kakinada-Pondicherry stretch of canals comprising of Kakinada canal, Eluru canal, Commamur canal, Buchingham canal and the Kaluvelly tank, Bhadrachalam-Rajahmundry stretch of rivers Godavari and Wazirabad-Vijayawada stretch of river Krishna in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry as national waterways.The Lok Sabha also cleared a Bill which sought to make it mandatory to place academic performance and annual accounts reports of five Central academic institutions in Parliament. The Central Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008 will amend the existing Acts governing Delhi University, Banaras Hindu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, North-Eastern Hill University and the University of Hyderabad.
