Mangalore, Aug 09: “Strict action will be taken against rig owners and land owners in case of drilling the bore well without obtaining permission from the Authority,” said Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim chairing a meeting of the Ground Water Authority at his office on Aug 08.
The DC, who is also the Chairman of the District Ground Water Authority informed that, “drilling rigs will be confiscated without issuing notice in advance, if they are found to be drilling the borewells illegally. At present, there are 13 registered drilling rigs. All the rigs used for drilling have to be registered with the Authority, failing which unregistered rigs will be seized.”
Defunct open borewells belonging to private individuals or the zilla panchayat should be closed immediately, he instructed.
The DC also mentioned that, if water is not found in the borewell, casing pipe should not be removed or the borewell has to be sealed with soil. If the open borewell claims life, criminal case will be booked against the rig owner and land owner, under IPC Section 108, 404 and 304 A.
Briefing about the diameter of the borewells, Zilla Panchayat Executive Engineer Nanjeshaiah said that diameter of boreholes which was 3.5 to four inches in 1985, has now increased to 6.5 inches due to ground water depletion.
Tulasi Maddineni, ZP CEO informed that the total number of government borewells in the district is above 4,000. No private individual can dig a borewell within 500 metres radius of the government borewell. Of the total government borewells in the district, 656 are defunct. Among the defunct borewells, 631 borewells have been closed, while 25 are pending. The process of sealing them is underway.
