Team Herald
NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shantaram Naik on Friday piloted a private member’s Bill in the Rajya Sabha to remove names of six rivers of his Goa state — Mandovi, Zuari, Chapora, Chumarjua, Sal and Moide — from the National Waterways (Amendment) Act passed by Parliament last year.
He said the Centre’s takeover of the six rivers and unspecified land on both sides of these rivers through nationalisation was uncalled for as better way to make Goa’s rivers more effectively navigable would be to provide financial assistance to the state government to undertake dredging.
Naik also moved two other Bills to amend the Constitution, one to curb powers assumed by the Election Commission under Article 324, including the Symbol Order issued by it in 1968. He wants the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, amended to bar allotment of the national flower, national animal, national bird or religious symbols, to political parties as the poll symbol.
He said the ruling BJP deliberately used its ‘Lotus’ poll symbol as the logo of the eighth BRICS summit in October and plastered it all over Goa to gain advantage in the Assembly elections in the state.
As regards his waterways bill, he said it is not clear whether land on the banks of the rivers will also become property of the Centre by virtue of their nationalisation. He insisted that no study of the social impact of the nationalisation has been made regarding the environmental aspects and fishermen’s livelihood nor did the state government explain to the people on circumstances under which it okayed the Bill.
