Soz asks states to come out with a legislation on ground water

New Delhi, Sep 25 (UNI) Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz today asked the states to come out with legislation on priority to check over-exploitation of ground water in various parts of the country.

In a statement, Prof Soz that the Ministry had circulated to the states a Model Bill to be adopted to all the States and Union Territories for regulating the ground water exploitation. The Model Bill had several regulations on development and augmentation of ground water resources. The Ministry, he said, had sent several communiques to the states explaining the dangers of unchecked pumping of ground water to the society.

He said the government had taken several new initiatives like constituting an Artificial Recharge of Ground Water Advisory Council to popularise the concept among all stake holders. The Council had members from all fields -- agriculture, industry, banking and financial institutions besides concerned Ministries and state governments and had commenced its work by discussing wide ranging issues concerning over-exploitation of ground water.

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