the goan I network
Porvorim
Water tanker owners are experiencing hardships on account of rigorous rules of the Ground water policy framed by the State government and the casual attitude displayed by the officials of the Water Resource Department in handling the files of the tanker owners.
While speaking to media persons, Nilesh Mapsekar stated that in the year 2002 the government framed the Ground Water Policy to regulate groundwater resources under which the registration of commercial wells with the Water Resource Department (WRD) has been made mandatory. The well owners are also required to install meters at the wells.
“The procedure for registration of the wells is not that simple. In the first place, the owner of the well is required to take the junior engineer of the WRD to inspect the well by hiring a taxi. The WRD does not have vehicles of their own to inspect the wells. Thereafter no action is taken on the file for several months by the officials of the Water Resource Department. The well owner has to pursue the matter personally to obtain a registration certificate,” Mapsekar said.
Santosh Korgaonkar mentioned that to obtain fitness certificate for water tanker from the Road Transport Department, the owner of the water tanker is required to obtain a No Objection Certificate from the WRD.
“To obtain this NOC, the water tanker owner has to take his tanker to the office of WRD at Porvorim. If the engineer is absent, then the tanker owner has to go back and bring the tanker on a day convenient to the engineer. Tanker owners are required to go to the office of WRD several times to obtain the NOC. The files of some of the tanker owners are pending in WRD for NOC for the last 4 months. Unless this NOC from WRD is submitted the Road Transport Department does not issue Fitness Certificate for the tanker. Thereafter the tanker owner needs to visit the office of RTO several times to obtain the fitness certificate.”
“The matter does not end there. The tanker owner has to obtain a fitness certificate every year from the Transport department. This is nothing but harassment. The government should increase the validity period of this fitness certificate to 5 years. It is high time the government simplifies these rules of Ground Water Policy and RTO procedures or else they will have to approach the High Court for justice,” Korgaonkar said.
