GUWAHATI, March 4 — Assam Government will bring a Bill to empower the State Government to have control over natural gas resources available in the State in the line of the Gujarat Gas (Regulation of Transmission, Supply and Distribution) Bill, 2001. The State Minister for Mines and Minerals, Gobinda Chandra Langthasa today made a statement in the House in this regard after the AGP legislator Gunin Hazarika moved a private member Bill over the issue.
Sri Hazarika moved the Assam Regulatory Board (Control and Distribution) on Gas and Gas Works, Bill, 2003 in the House today in order to empower the State Government to have control over the natural gas pool available. Moving the Bill, Sri Hazarika stated that natural gas would be the fuel of the future and it was hightime the State Government should enact proper legislation to have control over the huge pool of the resource available in the State.
He informed that the State now have a pool of about 1.73 billion cubic metre of natural gas and that the Barak Valley region had been identified a potential area for exploitation of natural gas. Citing example of Gujarat where the Assembly had already passed a similar Bill in 2001, Sri Hazarika called upon the State Assembly to consider his Bill aimed at enabling the State to have the final say on tapping of natural gas reserve in the State.
In response, the Mines and Mineral Minister Sri Langthasa stated that the private member Bill had many a loopholes that needed be plugged to make is more effective. The Minister informed that before bringing in a Bill on the issue the State Government would like to wait for Supreme Court ruling on the appeal filed by Government of India against the Gujarat Gas Bill, 2001.