Under which law does the Union government constitute a tribunal to decide an inter-state river water dispute?

The correct answer is C, the Sutlej. The Bhakra dam stands on the Sutlej at Bhakra in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, with the Nangal barrage downstream in Punjab, and the reservoir behind it is Govind Sagar. The project supplies irrigation water and power to Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh and is the project Nehru described as a temple of resurgent India. Option A is wrong because the Beas carries the Pong dam, whose reservoir is Maharana Pratap Sagar, and the Pandoh dam. Option B is wrong because the Ravi carries the Thein or Ranjit Sagar dam in Punjab. Option D is wrong because the Chenab carries the Salal, Baglihar and Dulhasti projects in Jammu and Kashmir. All four are rivers of the Indus system, which is why they appear together as options.

The correct answer is A, the Mahanadi. The Hirakud dam was built across the Mahanadi in Sambalpur district of Odisha, and with its earthen dykes on both flanks it is the longest dam in the country. It was taken up in the first plan period to control the floods for which the Mahanadi delta was notorious, and it also irrigates a large command area and generates power. Option B is wrong because the Godavari carries projects such as Sriram Sagar, Polavaram and Jayakwadi, not Hirakud. Option C is wrong because the Subarnarekha has its own multipurpose project shared by Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. Option D is wrong because the Brahmani carries the Rengali project in Odisha. All four rivers drain to the Bay of Bengal, which is why they are set together.

The correct answer is B, the Krishna. The Nagarjuna Sagar dam is built across the Krishna at Nandikonda, on the border of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and is one of the largest masonry dams in the country. The reservoir submerged the Buddhist site of Nagarjunakonda, whose remains were shifted to an island museum, a detail examiners like to pair with the dam. Option A is wrong because the Kaveri carries the Krishnaraja Sagar and Mettur dams. Option C is wrong because the Tungabhadra, itself a tributary of the Krishna, carries the Tungabhadra project at Hospet shared by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Option D is wrong because the Penna carries the Somasila and Gandikota projects. The Krishna basin also holds Srisailam, Almatti and Narayanpur. Examiners also ask for the state in which the dam stands, so remember Nandikonda on the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh border, and keep Srisailam, further upstream on the same river, separate from it.

The correct answer is A, the Tennessee Valley Authority of the United States. The Damodar Valley Corporation was created by an Act of 1948 as an autonomous body for an entire river basin, with flood control, irrigation, power and navigation under one management, exactly on the pattern of the Tennessee Valley Authority set up in America in 1933. Its dams at Tilaiya, Konar, Maithon and Panchet lie in Jharkhand and West Bengal, and they tamed a river long called the sorrow of Bengal. Option B is wrong because the Rhine Commission deals with navigation on an international river, not basin development. Option C is wrong because no Volga authority served as the Indian model. Option D is wrong because the Chinese projects on the Yangtze came decades later than the Indian corporation.

The correct answer is B, Article 262. Article 262 allows Parliament to make a law for the adjudication of any dispute about the use, distribution or control of the waters of an inter-state river or river valley, and to bar the Supreme Court and all other courts from such disputes. Parliament used this power to enact the River Boards Act, 1956 and the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, under which tribunals are appointed. Option A is wrong because Article 252 lets Parliament legislate for two or more consenting states on a State List subject. Option C is wrong because Article 263 provides for an Inter-State Council, which discusses common subjects but does not adjudicate. Option D is wrong because Article 280 provides for the Finance Commission, which deals with the sharing of taxes, not of water.