The Rajasthan government has once again taken a U-turn on the Groundwater Management Authority Bill by sending it to the Select Committee of the house for one more time. The said Bill was brought to regulate groundwater extraction in the state and had stringent provisions.
After the debate on this bill in the Assembly on Wednesday, Water Supplies Minister Kanhaiya Lal Chaudhary proposed to send the bill to the Select Committee, which was approved by the house.
“Looking at the environmental challenges, the said Bill is the need of the hour, but as we got some more suggestions during the debate in the house, the government finds it appropriate to send the Bill to the Select Committee of the house for one more time to incorporate these suggestions,” said the minister in the house.
During the debate on the Bill, opposition MLAs raised questions on the provisions of registration of all tube well digging machines and all tube wells. The MLAs said that the government does not have adequate resources for this.
Congress MLAs Hakeem Ali, Rafiq Khan, and Harimohan Sharma said that the government is keeping a watch on water. This will lead to bureaucracy taking over the availability of water.
Notably, the Bill provides for direct control of the state government on the extraction of groundwater by constituting a state-level authority to grant permission for digging bore wells. The said authority has been empowered to decide tariffs for all uses of groundwater based on volumetric measurements of water consumption. There are provisions for punishment of up to six months of jail and a fine of ₹50,000 for failure to comply with the provisions of the Bill.
It is worth mentioning that Rajasthan is a water-scarce state, and the crisis is deepening day by day. According to a study conducted in the year 2023, 216 blocks are in the overexploited category.
