SECUNDERABAD: Now, civilians of Secunderabad Cantonment will have to seek permission from the authorities to dig borewells. For military establishments within the local limits of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB), defence authorities will need to inform the Board about the existing borewells.
This is being done to arrest illegal digging of borewells and extracting groundwater indiscriminately, sid SCB officials adding that the Board has formulated a comprehensive policy with all these regulations. A draft of this policy — on digging and use of borewells — was uploaded on the SCB portal calling for objections and suggestions. The last date for it is January 27.
Currently, the SCB maintains close to 1,000 borewells. And though they do not have any data on illegal borewells, sources claim it could be close to a lakh across all eight SCB wards. According to the reports of the Hyderabad ground water department, the water table in Trimulgherry and Marredpally areas have observed a huge drop in the last few years.
Now, “it is mandatory that a compulsory registration for borewells has to be done in a month. The registration fee and renewal charges, if any, will be decided by the Cantonment Board. The authority may issue directions to stop the extraction of groundwater any time without assigning any reason,” the draft policy stated.
The SCB will levy a fine or damage of Rs 5,000 for the same. “Charges for existing residential borewells for extraction above 100 litres per day will be charged at Rs 3 per kilo litre and for the commercial/industrial borewells for extraction above 50 litres per day, Rs 10 per kilo litre will be charged.”
