Seal borewells, impose penalty on GB Nagar realtors, says NGT-appointed panel

According to the petitioners, the statutory authorities failed to prevent illegal extraction of groundwater for commercial purposes resulting in depletion of the groundwater table in the area to the extent that it was identified as “overexploited”

All illegal borewells should be sealed and every realtor extracting groundwater illegally should pay an environmental compensation fee for damaging the ecology, said a committee formed on the orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to probe the extent of groundwater extraction by developers in Gautam Budh Nagar.

The tribunal on July 5 directed a joint team of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board and the Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate to “verify facts” and ‘submit an action taken report in two months. (Representative image)

The tribunal on July 5 directed a joint team of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board and the Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate to “verify facts” and ‘submit an action taken report in two months on the allegations by petitioners Pradip Dahalia and Prasoon Pant that developers were extracting groundwater indiscriminately.

Subsequently, district magistrate Suhas LY the same month formed a seven -member committee headed by chief development officer Tej Pratap Mishra to probe the matter.

Besides him, the committee comprises Kapil Dev, senior manager, Greater Noida authority; Suniti Parashar scientist, CPCB; Ankita Rai, hydrologist, Central Ground Water Board; Ranjit Singh, UPPCB; Himanshu Gautam, Uttar Pradesh irrigation department; and two others.

According to the petitioners, the statutory authorities failed to prevent illegal extraction of groundwater for commercial purposes resulting in depletion of the groundwater table in the area to the extent that it was identified as “overexploited” as per the assessment of the Central Ground Water Authority.

The committee inspected 33 of 63 sites in Greater Noida West that were flagged by the petitioners and the remaining will be inspected later.

“A total of 25 sites of the 33 inspected sites had borewells for extracting groundwater without permission. And the water was being used for construction purposes in place of the treated water made available for the purpose by the Greater Noida authority. The UPPCB has sent notices to 25 developers,” said the report submitted before the NGT, which is likely to hear the matter again next month.

The committee also said borewells should be sealed and an environmental compensation fee -- calculated as per the consumption -- be imposed on the errant developers.

“We have submitted the report to the NGT in compliance with the tribunal’s July order. Now, to stop the illegal extraction of groundwater, we will follow the NGT guidelines strictly,” said Mishra.

The committee also suggested that there should be proper monitoring of water usage at construction sites and the Greater Noida authority should continue supplying adequate treated water.