Rampant digging of illegal borewells goes on in Secunderabad

SECUNDERABAD: Rampant digging of borewells continues unabated in areas such as Malkajgiri, Alwal, Yapral among other areas despite water supply in the area said to have been improved in the last few months.
As per the Water, Land and Trees Act (WALTA), borewell of width not more than 4.5 inch and depth not exceeding to 500 feet are allowed only after permission is sought from the revenue department.However, residents rue that many apartments are illegally drilling borewells, flouting norms.

The Malkajgiri mandal is notorious for illegal borewells with dozens of complaints registered with the revenue officer in the last few months. In Neredmet,for instance, the Malkajgiri MRO recently seized an illegal borewell at Officers Colony, RK Puram following a complaint by an advocate.
“Illegal borewell digging runs deep in the Malkajgiri area. I have found about three such cases where borewells were found dug up illegally in this month alone,” said Srinivas Yadav, the complainant.
Residents rue that digging activity is taken up in the night and is concluded by early morning. “After I complained to collector, Medchal-Malkajgiri through Twitter, an illegal borewell was sealed by the Alwal mandal revenue officer in Green Fields. However, no case has been booked even today. Such borewells were allowed in Alwal against the rules,” Chandrasekhar, an activist from Alwal.
Admitting to the menace of illegal borewells, Geeta Manu, mandal revenue officer of Malkajgiri said , “I have issued approximately 70-80 borewell permissions in the last one year and seized about 10 illegal borewells under the WALTA Act in Malkajgiri mandal. The issue is pertinent in residential complexes where people dig borewell of upto 6.5 inches despite issuing permission to dig one of only 4.5 inch.”