Chennai: The Tamil Nadu assembly on Friday passed nine Bills, including a new legislation, the Tamil Nadu Water Resources (Regulation, Management and Augmentation) Bill, 2026, aimed at regulating, managing and augmenting water resources through participatory governance to ensure equity, efficiency and sustainability.The Bill seeks to facilitate the creation of an institutional framework for a holistic and integrated approach to water governance, covering groundwater, surface water, wastewater and river basins. The govt decided to come up with a comprehensive new legislation to ensure a uniform regulatory system throughout the state. The Bill gave effect to govt’s decision. It facilitated the constitution of TN Water Resources Management Authority, district committees, formulation of state and district water resources management plans, regulation of existing and new commercial water users, levy of water tariff for abstraction of water, and measures for flood management.
The assembly passed another Bill aimed at easing the financial burden on parents. This would facilitate TN govt setting a cap on fees charged by private schools through a statutory mechanism. To achieve this, a Bill was passed in the assembly to amend Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act 2009. In the statement of objectives and reasons, state minister for school education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said amendment was proposed to induct a parent member from TN state parent-teachers association as a member of the seven-member panel to give representation to parents in the fee committee. It would induct director of private schools instead of director of matriculation schools, and nominate a govt officer, not below the rank of deputy secretary, to the panel to ensure administrative flexibility and continuity. It would also extend the window period to make objections against decision of fee determination committee regarding fee structure from 15 days to 30 days from the date of receipt of the decision of the panel. It mandated to submit revision application of fee structure once in three years, he further said. The assembly also passed Tamil Nadu co-operative societies (Amendment) bill, 2024, which was passed by the House for the second time. The bill was first cleared on Dec 10, 2024, but was returned by Governor R N Ravi on June 16 last year. After the speaker read out the governor’s letter stating he was returning the bill under powers vested in him under Article 200 of the Constitution, the speaker pointed out that communication said certain provisions of the bill violated “constitutional provisions and principles of natural justice”. Participating in the debate after the bill was reintroduced, Congress floor leader K Selvaperunthagai, PMK floor leader G K Mani, SS Balaji (VCK), V P Nagaimaali (CPI-M), T Sadan Thirumalaikumar (DMK), E R Eswaran (DMK), and P Ayappan of the AIADMK (OPS camp) protested against the governor, accusing him of undermining authority of the state assembly by returning the bill without granting assent. They also criticised the governor’s remarks on the legislation. Among the other Bills passed were the Tamil Nadu Appointment on Preferential Basis in the Services under the State of Persons Studied in Tamil Medium (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2026 and the Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Amendment) Bill 2026. After the passage of the Bills, the House was adjourned sine die.
