NEW DELHI, March 19 � The Centre has on Monday claimed comprehensive technical studies were carried out for safety of dams including dams in the North-east.
In a Rajya Sabha reply to a question by Biren Baishya, Minister of State for Planning and Earth Sciences, Dr Shwani Kumar said the technical studies are carried out according to the guidelines issued by the Central Water Commission (CWC) for safety inspection of dams.
The entire north-eastern region comprising eight States falls in Zone-V of the Seismic Zoning map of India prepared under the auspices of Bureau of Indian Standards.
All high-hazard category dams in Zone V would have seismic stability investigations involving comprehensive seismological and geological studies, so as to assess whether or not the dam would have sufficient residual integrity to retain the reservoir during and after the earthquake, which might occur near the project location.
The CWC is vested with the coordinating responsibility along with North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, IITs, NIT and State Government agencies including Directorate of Mines and Geology, Department of Irrigation for implementing dam safety guidelines.
Minister of State for Water Resources Vicent H Pala, in a Rajya Sabha reply, however, has no proposal for forming a National Dam Safety Authority. In the Dam Safety Bill 2010, the Central Government proposed to establish separate organisation to be known as the Central Dam Safety Organisation.
