Cabinet nod for bill to revamp Damodar Valley Corp
17 Jun 2011
The union cabinet on Thursday approved a bill that seeks to make the Damodar Valley Corp, one of the country's oldest public sector entities, more professional and in tune with modern India's needs.
The bill, to be tabled in the coming monsoon session of Parliament, seeks to reconstitute the (DVC) in order to have more independent professional representation, in line with recommendations by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI).
Under the new structure proposed in the bill, the DVC board will have four full-time members, including the chairman who will also be chief executive, and six part-time members, including representatives of the union government and the state governments of Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The part-time members will include independent experts in the field of irrigation, water supply and electricity transmission, an official statement said.
The DVC was set up in 1948 as the first multipurpose river valley project of independent India. The 24,000 sq km covered by DVC activities are partly in Jharkhand and partly in West Bengal.
The initial focus of the DVC was flood control, irrigation, power generation, transmission and distribution, eco-conservation, and afforestation, as well as job creation for the people residing in and around areas affected by DVC projects.
