BHUBANESWAR: Residents of a prominent city apartment are looking at a possible water scarcity in their houses with realtor of the project being show-caused and then issued a demand notice of Rs 3.5 crore for extracting groundwater without obtaining due permission from the authorities.
The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in the show-cause letter issued to the realtor in April this year for the housing project in Kalinga Nagar has stated that it has come to their notice that groundwater was withdrawn without obtaining NOC from the authorities.
The CGWB, in the letter, stated that this illegal withdrawal of groundwater amounts to theft. Exercising its power under the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986, the CGWB in the letter asked the realtor why the extraction structures should not be sealed for illegal withdrawal of groundwater.
Later in May, a technical team of CGWB visited the project and after inspection, issued the realtor a demand notice Rs 3.5 crore for illegal extraction of groundwater between Sept 2020 and May 2024. It stated that the amount is calculated as environment compensation fee.
Residents of the apartment alleged that the realtor neither replied to the show-cause notice nor has paid the amount demanded by the authorities which is ultimately giving sleepless nights to them since they will face water scarcity if the matter is not resolved.
There are more than 4,000 residents living in the 18 blocks of the apartment. “We learnt that the project has no permission to extract groundwater, but on inspection, it was found nine borewells are functioning,” Ajit Kumar Choudhury, president of the resident welfare association, stated.
He stated that in 2011 when the project was in execution stage, there were no requirements of any permission for extracting groundwater but later rules were amended and NOC was demanded that the builder neither applied nor obtained from the authorities.
The realtor in the meantime told TOI that they had handed over the project to group of residents in 2017. “The first phase of the project which is in question here has been handed over to the allottees and they are in responsibility of the amenities,” Sasi Kumar, director of the real estate firm, said.
The residents, however, have a different take on it. The builder has not handed over the project officially to us and they have also been obstructing us in applying for certificate of associations of allottees under the new apartment ownership act, a resident alleged.
