Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently observed that in the absence of any statute, regulations or executive instructions barring a person to extract water from his own borewell, no prohibitory orders can be passed against its owner or persons to whom the borewell owner had permitted to withdraw water.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by A. Balamaniraj of Allikulam in Thoothukudi district. The petitioner complained that because of illegal transportation of drinking water from private borewells, the groundwater table was going down due to which Allikulam was facing water scarcity. So, excessive extraction of water from borewells must be stopped , he said.
Except in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts, there was no legislation to regulate extraction of water anywhere in the State. Though a Division Bench of the court had requested the State government to bring out a legislation to regulate extraction of water in other parts of Tamil Nadu, the State government had not yet implemented it, he said.
