Nod for sinking of bore well to be reviewed

Tribune News Service

Solan, December 15

With the villagers of Gram Panchayat Anji comprising Anji, Samlech, Sharnu, Seri and Nasal villagers voicing their protest against sinking of a bore well in the area by a private automobile company, the HP Ground Water Authority will now review the permission accorded to it in October.

The villagers included up prdhan Balbir Singh rued that they were already facing shortage of water in the twin villages of Sharnu and Anji for the last several months and if this bore well was allowed to be sunk it would further aggravate the situation.

Though the panchayat had earlier granted an NOC to this company for boring this bore well it had been withdrawn later and villagers were now up in arms against this move. The company employees had started the work of boring this well but the work had to be halted after the locals blocked the highway and registered their protest.

Additional District Magistrate Sandip Negi has directed the authority to review this permission. He informed that the field report sent by the Executive Engineer (XEN) of the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department had also opposed permission for this bore well as another hand pump had been sunk within a distance of 91 m. Presence of a bore well would have, therefore, led to depletion of the ground water.

Negi said he has directed the private company to maintain status quo till the authority reviewed its decision.

Authority’s Member Secretary DK Negi, when contacted, said they had received a communication from the XEN IPH and ADM Solan and they would review this case. He said issues like presence of another hand pump in its proximity and XEN’s report proposing non-recommendation of this well would be taken into consideration.

This was not the first time that such a case had cropped up. Even in the case of a private realty company operating in the Kasauli area similar situation had arisen in the recent past. While water-related disputes have become common in the district the authority had failed to consider the cause of the common people who suffered the most.