Rights panel wants reply on groundwater misuse

editorial@tribune.com

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Mahendragarh, March 14

Taking suo motu cognisance of a report published in The Tribune about the commercial use of groundwater by stone crushing units here in violation of guidelines, the Haryana Human Right Commission (HHRC) has sought a report from the Mahendragarh DC and the Central Ground Water Board, Union Ministry of Water Resources.

The HHRC chairperson, Justice SK Mittal (retd), and its members — Justice KC Puri and Deep Bhatia — have renotified the case for July 17.

The extraction of groundwater for the commercial purpose is illegal in Narnaul and Nangal Choudhry blocks, which have declared as “dark zones” because of the depleting water table.

The violation of came to light when a team of the groundwater cell with the Agriculture Department conducted a survey to find out the source of water being used by the stone crushing units.

The cell not only sealed 18 tubewells installed in the stone crushing units at Jainpur, Gangutana, Bakhrija, Karota and Faizabad villages, but put on notice farmers who sold groundwater to the units by extracting it through their tubewells meant for agricultural purpose.