North Central Chhattisgarh Region
Raipur
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Central Ground Water Board North Central Chhattisgarh Region Raipur | | |
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| The Prologue |
Right to life is a fundamental right of every citizen. Under the constitution, only the landowner has an absolute right on the water under his land since it is a part of the dominant tenancy laws of the state. Therefore in the case of the transfer of property, the right to extract water will be available to the new owner only if the land is transferred along with the property. Any landowner can abstract any amount of water. The above legal framework implies that only the land owners own ground water in this country, As a consequence the landless, who constitute more than 30% of the rural farm population and the tribals who do not enjoy private ownership on land do not enjoy the water rights. The tribals however, have community rights. The result of such a legal provision is that any landowner may extract any quantity of water and sell these to the other needy users at prices he considers appropriate.
| Existing Measures |
Existing measures for regulating ground water development
The control being exercised at present in India for regulating ground water development is in the form of indirect administrative measures being adopted by institutional finance agencies for schemes proposed for bank financing. The financial institutions by and large insist on technical clearance of the schemes. Another control imposed by the institutional agencies availing refinancing facilities from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is by way of prescribing spacing criteria between two ground water structures.
Ground Water Development Programme in an area / block is considered by the loaning agencies, bases on the ground water balance available for future development. The State Ground Water Departments and Central Ground Water Board make ground water resource assessment on accepted methodology jointly and the proposed ground water development programme is cleared subject to ground water availability.
The other administrative regulatory measure is by way of denying power connections for pumps in areas with high state of ground water development of those where the level of over – exploitation has reached.
Presently the Madhya Pradesh Peya Jal – Pariakshan Adhiniam, 1986, applies to the State of Chhattisgarh. The Act provides for preservation of water in water sources and for regulation of digging of tube wells in order to maintain the water supply to the public for domestic purposes and for matters ancillary thereto. Under the Act the Collector has been given powers to declare any area as water scarcity area for any period for maintaining or increasing supply of water to the public or for securing its equitable distribution, or for securing water to meet the needs of the public. Digging of tubewells without permission for any purpose in water scarcity area and digging of a tube well in zone of interference of a tube well constructed or maintained by State Government or local authority for domestic water supply to the public has been prohibited. Any contravention of the appropriate provisions of the act is punishable with imprisonment up to two years, or fine upto Rupees two thousand or both.
It is evident the scope of the act is very limited. It does not prevent the affluent sections of the society from constructing wells in critical areas. This brings in socio- economic problems where in poor farmers, desiring to avail of institutional finance assistance are deprived of the opportunity. Also an affluent farmer with his large capital investment can construct a high capacity well. Which may affect the existing shallow wells of poor farmers in the neighborhood.
| Formation of CGWA |
In compliance of the direction of the H’ble Supreme Court, dated. 10.12.1996, the ministry of environment and Forests constituted the Central Ground Water Board as Central Ground Water Authority under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (29 of 1986) for the “purposes of regulation and control of ground water management and development”. It is laid that the authority shall exercise the following powers and perform the following functions, namely:
(i) exercise of powers under section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (EPA) for issuing directions and taking such measures in respect of all the matters referred in sub-section (2) of section 3 of the said Act,
(ii) to resort to penal provisions contained in section 15 to 21 of the said Act,
(iii) to regulate indiscriminate boring and withdrawal of ground water in the country and to issue necessary directions with a view to preserve and protect ground water.
CGWA has been vested with powers under EPA, which entails measures to protect and improve environment in national interest. CGWA will be mainly responsible for framing guidelines and monitoring the implementation of the purpose for which the Authority has been set up.
| Powers of CGWA |
The authority has powers to cover all aspects related to the followings
DEVELOPMENT
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AUGMENTATION
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MANAGEMENT
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MAJOR ACTIVITIES
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