The tragic death of six-year-old Kaveri, who died after falling into an open borewell in Belagavi district recently, seems to have come as a wake-up call to the authorities in Mysuru district.
All panchayat development officers (PDOs) in the district have been asked to check the presence of abandoned borewells left uncapped in public and private properties. If found, they need to be immediately capped as a precautionary measure to prevent a Belagavi-type incident – is the instruction what the PDOs have received from the Mysuru Zilla Panchayat. The message on the action against uncapped borewells was sent to the ZP’s WhatsApp group of officials and engineers for immediate action.
Mysuru ZP CEO Shivashankar told The Hindu that the PDOs have been told to conduct a survey on abandoned and uncapped borewells and take necessary action for their closure.
He said there were no abandoned and uncapped borewells in government lands as they are immediately closed if they fail to yield water. “We don’t have an accurate information on abandoned borewells in private lands,” the ZE CEO said. He said there was no data on the number of borwells sunk in private lands as the owners fail to inform the authorities. “When this is the case, how can we locate the abandoned borewells?” he asked.
Nevertheless, the PDOs have been asked to collect information and persuade the owners to close the borewells citing the tragic incidents of children falling into them reported in some parts the country, including north Karnataka.
Sources in the Mines and Geology Department told The Hindu that data on the number of borewells sunk by the government agencies and the number of borewells that have failed to yield water were compiled and reported to the State authorities once in three months as per the directions from the Supreme Court. The State’s data on the borewells was submitted to the Karnataka Legal Services Authority every three months.
Information on the borewells that were scientifically closed for not yielding water was also mentioned in the report. But the data on borewells in private lands was not available since the property owners don’t bother to inform the department.
As per the rules, it is mandatory for the owners to submit an application to the department 15 days before sinking a borewell, citing the cause. But, this does not happen since the officials claim the public were unaware of the rule.
“It’s nothing but lack of awareness. Hoardings have been put up at the GP and TP offices informing the public on borewells. Such incidents were mostly happening in private lands since the owners don’t take adequate measures to close the borewells as per the guidelines,” sources in the department said.
