Inspect illegal borewells used commercially: HC

This comes at a time when villages surrounding the capital city are expressing resentment over groundwater from their neighbourhood being extracted in large quantities to meet the demand of the city.

The division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the Kancheepuram collector, and police inspectors of Velachery and Selaiyur to immediately seize the electrical motor, apparatus used for extraction of water as well as vehicles used for transportation and distribution if they find any contravention of the provisions of the Chennai Metropolitan Area Ground Water (Regulation) Act, 1987, during their inspection and verification of documents.

The bench also directed the collector and other authorities under the Chennai Metropolitan Area Ground Water (Regulation) Act, 1987, to file a detailed report, along with photographs, about the illegal extraction of water if any on July 1.

The directions were based on a plea by R Ramesh, G Prakash and Kumaraswamy from Kancheepuram seeking to initiate action against those indulging in illegal extraction of groundwater for commercial purposes and forillegal usage of electricity serviceconnections.

The bench also sought the authorities to find whether the persons mentioned in the complaint have been granted any license under Section 5 of the Chennai Metropolitan Area Ground Water (Regulation) Act, 1987, and whether water was being used for domestic or commercial purpose.

The bench also cited the order of a single judge on October 3, 2018, which had directed the authorities not to grant license or permission to extract groundwater for commercial usage in the absence of fixation of water flow meter on the board. Directing the inspection of the functional quality and other established standards of the flow meters fixed by the persons, the single judge had directed the PWD authorities to ensure that such meters were sealed properly in a way to prevent tampering.

The quantum of water to be extracted by individuals were to be fixed periodically as per the assessment to be made by the PWD authorities, the single judge had directed in the order.