THE GOAN NETWORK
MAPUSA
Time and again when the executive fails to act, the public is forced to approach the judiciary to enforce the rule of law.
In one such case in Anjuna, overlooking directions from the Water Resources Department (WRD), Anjuna Police and the power department failed to take action against an illegality, forcing the complainant to approach the court for justice.
Acting on a writ petition, the High Court of Bombay at Goa recently directed the State government to ascertain whether there was illegal extraction of ground water in violation of the rules and regulations in Anjuna and take action in the matter.
The WRD had found that a local, Mukesh Sawant, was involved in over exploitation of ground water in the village of Anjuna. Acting on the complaint of a local, Erwin Fonseca, the WRD conducted a site inspection and found that Sawant had been operating two illegal bore wells in his property (survey no 458/8) without any permissions and one open well, for which he had registration.
Even in the case of the open well, he had failed to fix the mandatory meter to measure the quantum of water he was drawing from the well.
Since 2014, the WRD conducted a number of site inspections with regard to the withdrawal and exploitation of groundwater by Sawant.
WRD has also issued several show cause notices and stop work orders directing the alleged accused to maintain status quo with regard to the open well but the accused failed to comply with the directions.
With no other alternative, the WRD issued notices to the electricity department to cut Sawant’s power supply and also wrote a letter to the police department to file an FIR against him for illegal exploitation of ground water.
For more than a year, the complainant filed a series of RTIs collating information and vigorously pursued the matter with the WRD, but failed to get justice.
Finally, with the help of Goa Foundation, Fonseca filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking action against the illegality.
“Water levels everywhere in Goa have dropped and Goa is facing a water famine. But in Anjuna and the neighbouring village of Assagao the drought has been created by illegal actions of people like Sawant and the authorities are unable to take action although empowered by rules,” Fonseca told the court.
The government counsel gave an undertaking to the High Court that the government will take serious action against the accused and file a reply within a week.
