The Division Bench of Justices Valmiki Menezes and Hiten Venegavkar noted that although the WRD had identified 70 illegal bore wells in Dharwadkar Colony and Serrao Colony of Chimbel village, only 22 had initially been sealed and five more had been sealed since May 2.
"From these figures, the Department of Water Resources is obviously moving very slow on identifying the location of these bore wells," the court observed while hearing a PIL Writ Petition by Ana Gracias concerning illegal groundwater extraction in the area.
The court was informed that 12 persons who had allegedly constructed illegal bore wells had now applied for their regularisation.
In view of the situation, the Bench ordered that the WRD Secretary be impleaded as a respondent in the case and directed the official to coordinate enforcement efforts.
“We expect that with the intervention of the Secretary, Water Resources Department, the identification of all illegal bore wells in the said area is completed by the next date of hearing and positive action is taken to seal such bore wells which are unlicensed under the Act," the Bench said.
Pending further orders, the High Court directed that no permissions for regularisation of bore wells in the area covered by the petition should be granted by the WRD.
The court also directed the Police Inspector of Old Goa Police Station to provide police personnel to assist WRD officers in locating and, if necessary, sealing the illegal bore wells under powers available under the law.
Further, the Secretary of the Village Panchayat has been directed to assist authorities in identifying the illegal bore wells and the persons responsible for constructing them. The matter has been posted for further hearing on July 15
