Terming a December 12 notification issued by the Union Water Resources Ministry on the extraction of groundwater, as “unsustainable,” the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Centre to “not give effect” to it as it had “serious shortcomings.”
A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said, “It is clear that rather than laying down stricter norms for extraction of groundwater for commercial purposes and putting in place a robust institutional mechanism for surveillance and monitoring, extraction of groundwater has been liberalised adding to the crisis, unmindful of the ground situation and likely impact it will have on environment.”
Coming down heavily on the Ministry, the Bench said, “The so-called regulation is illusory. The so-called conditions are incapable of meaningful monitoring as shown by past experience also. There is no check on injection of pollutants in the groundwater in the impugned notification.”
Taking into account the Ministry’s suggestion of levying a water conservation fee, it said, “The fee virtually gives licence to harness groundwater to any extent.”
The NGT directed the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to constitute a committee to examine “the issue of appropriate policy for conservation of groundwater”.
