New Bill to tackle declining ground water level in UP

Lucknow, May 20 (UNI) The Uttar Pradesh government is drafting a bill to check the diminishing underground water level due to over exploitation.

Giving this information at a press conference here, state minister for minor irrigation Lakhi Ram Nagar said, ''With the adoption of the new law, the consumers would have to take permission for installation of tubewells and boring, while subsidy given by the government for setting up tubewells in rural areas would be stopped where the ground water level has gone down and identified as critical, semi-critical or over exploited.'' A high level committee had also been constituted to draft the proposed bill to be tabled in the state assembly, Mr Nagar informed.

The minister also said his government was concerned about the downfall of the ground water level and only a strict law could control the situation.

Rain water harvesting should be made compulsory in all the buildings of over 200 meters area so that recharging of the ground water was made regularly, he observed.

Mr Nagar added that the government under the central sponsored National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) project had launched innovate scheme of 'Khet Ka Pani Khet mai' and 'Gaon ka pani gaon mai,' which would enable conservation of rain water in ponds and other places in each of the villages in the state.

As per the records, of the total 723 blocks in the state, 37 were over exploited, 13 were critical and 88 were semi-critical in the ground water level. In Lucknow, the situation was even more serious with ground water level going down by 74 centimeter per year since 2003.

The minister made it clear that there was a need for bigger central projects to counter the declining water level problem with more people awareness on water conservation.

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