Misuse of water from public borewells come to fore

Incomplete work, irregularities in supply to villages inspected

The borewells in the villages might not yield any water, but the Zilla Panchayat members and officers who visited the villages on Wednesday had to face a flood of complaints by the residents.

The water in the government borewells is used for agricultural activities.

Most of the borewells have dried up, and there is no alternative supply. The gram panchayat officers have failed to inform the Zilla Panchayat members about the conditions and other statistics related to the borewells. The residents of villages are, in certain cases, themselves involved in politicising the supply of water. In reaction, the officers related have had to intervene, and also promise the residents of water supply...

Chandrappa, the deputy secretary of the ZP was stormed with complaint after complaint when he visited the villages in the backdrop of allegations that there have been irregularities in the supply of water and also illegal activities going on with borewells sunk in the villages.

Defunct connection

In Patravaripalli, there had been complaints of irregularities with respect to connection of pump, motor and pipelines to a newly-sunk borewell. In Gundlapalli of Goolur hobli, water from a public borewell is apparently being used for agricultural activities, while in Chenchurayanapalli, the  pump, motor and pipelines are not connected properly, thereby depriving the residents of any benefit of the borewell.

Water misuse

“The Zilla Panchayat technical division had sunk a borewell near the Gundlapalli tank in 2000, under the Minor Irrigation Scheme, and residents of Gundlapalli and Brahmanara Halli in the hobli drew water from this borewell.

But untimely rain has reduced the level of water in the borewell,” said the village residents.
“Now, a local leaders is using water from the borewell to irrigate his fields. He is drawing water by blocking the cisterns connected to the borewells,” they complained to the ZP deputy secretary.
This, however, led to a verbal duel among the residents.

Reacting to the complaint and the argument, Chandrappa reminded that private parties are not permitted to use borewells sunk by the government. “The water is for the use of the residents of the villages. The connection between the borewell and the cistern should be resumed immediately,” he told the gram panchayat officers.

Zilla Panchayat member B Savithramma, who was present on the occasion, said the matter of supply of water to Gundlapalli and Chenchurayanapalli in Goolur hobli was raised during the general body meeting on Tuesday. “The senior officers were asked to visit the villages with all related files,” she said.

‘Negligence’

The officers, however, had failed to bring the files, and Savithramma said that it only proved their negligence.
The ZP member and officers went from Gundlapalli to Chenchurayanapalli and inspected the newly-sunk borewell. Here too, although a borewell had been sunk, no pump, motor or pipeline connection had been provided. The residents therefore complained that they had been denied any water supply.

Chandrappa immediately ordered the gram panchayat officer concerned to look into the matter and install the pump and motor and ensure the pipeline is connected.

Zilla Panchayat technical division executive engineer Sundararaj, assistant executive inspector in-charge P V Nagappa, ZP chief project officer Vijayendra Babu, Taluk Panchayat executive officer C S Jayaram and others were part of the visiting team.