Gurugram to seal 560 illegal borewells
Gurugram: In a crackdown on illegal borewells, the Gurugram district has planned to seal 560 illegal borewells in various localities. In doing so, FIRs will also be registered against the owners of plots, where illegal borewells and pits were detected. A senior official of the District administration said a raiding team of 22 officials will be set up for a drive.
"Presently, a 22-member team is conducting the drive to check and dismantle illegal tubewells in the district and it will submit their reports every fortnight," said a senior official.
The action by the district administration is in compliance with the orders of Punjab and Haryana High Court, the builders and colonisers, who have obtained a licence from the Town and Country Department, Haryana has been directed to make arrangement of recycled treated sewage water for construction purposes. "HUDA department will keep a record of treated water taken by each builder from its Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and whether it was sufficient to meet its needs. HUDA and MCG will provide primary and secondary treated sewage water and the builder will have to finally treat it (Tertiary treatment) at the construction site before using it for construction purposes," said a senior official from Gurugram district administration.
Expressing concern over the depleting groundwater reserves the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in an order dated April 9, directed the district authorities to file a fresh status report on the matter within four weeks.
The court gave the directive with reference to a 2008 public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Sunil Singh against the Ministry of Environment and Forests and others on illegal extraction of groundwater through bore-wells. According to data obtained from the agricultural department's groundwater cell, from 2014 to 2018, the groundwater table fell by 2.5 metres in Gurugram district and by 3 metres in Gurugram city.
The department of agriculture also found that in 2018, the district overdrew on its groundwater reserves by 226 per cent. Gurugram city alone overdrew its supply by 308 per cent.
In 2013, the Central Groundwater Board (CGWB) had categorised the district as "over-exploited".
