Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday approved a bill, which, if passed, would transform the nation’s 17 irrigation associations into government agencies and give them authority to punish polluters of irrigation water.
The bill was drafted in compliance with an amendment to the Act of Irrigation Association Organization (農田水利會組織通則) that stipulated a new law be introduced to convert the associations into agencies, and govern their assets and staff, Council of Agriculture (COA) Department of Irrigation and Engineering Director-General Hsieh Sheng-hsin (謝勝信) told a news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
The associations oversee about 60 percent of the nation’s water resources, but do not have authority over polluters, Hsieh said.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
Other than shutting factories down, there are no penalties for offenders whose effluent contaminates irrigation water, he said.
Under the bill, only registered businesses that discharge effluent into irrigation water would be punished, with fines from NT$30,000 to NT$600,000.
About 2,300 employees at the 17 associations would be transferred to 17 corresponding agencies, which are to be created by the COA, Hsieh said.
The employees would enjoy benefits equivalent to those for civil servants under separate regulations to be introduced by the council, the draft says.
Should the transition from private entities to public entail the expropriation of land — for example in cases where an association’s premises encroach on private property — the government would pay for the properties, Hsieh said.
Land belonging to an association that has been idle due to outdated irrigation canals would be auctioned, with the income transferred to funds governed by each association to cover their operations, he said.
Asked how the council plans to persuade Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers to back the bill, COA Deputy Minister Chen Tien-shou (陳添壽) said that it would communicate with the KMT caucus to hopefully meet the Oct. 1 deadline to complete the move.
The KMT has been vocal in its opposition to the transition, saying that it is a “pork barrel” policy by the DPP.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS