Bangalore, Aug 5: Four-year-old Akshata's death after falling into a borewell in Nagthana taluk of Bijapur district on June 17 pushed the state government to come out with stringent guidelines for drilling borewells and their closure. However, more than a month later, 3,400 borewells still lie open across the state, according to the rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) department.
Now, after yet another accident, the state government is planning to come up with a revised 21-point guideline. And the chief minister has directed local authorities to cover all defunct borewells by August 30.
RDPR department officials fear the actual number of borewells lying open across the state could be more. This fear stems from the fact that there are various agencies which grant permission for digging borewells. For instance, BBMP's permission has to be sought if a borewell has to be dug in Bangalore. In rural areas, it's the panchayat development officer who gives the permission.
Meanwhile, the state government has issued show-cause notice to the Bagalkot district administration seeking explanation over a six-year-old boy's fall into an abandonded borewell at Sulikere village in Badami taluk of the district. The boy, Thimanna Hatti, fell into a borewell in a sugarcane field on Sunday afternoon.
"Though the incident happened on a private land, the government has sought details from the district administration. The government will prosecute the borewell contractor who left it open," chief minister Siddaramaiah told reporters in Hubli on Monday. Later in the evening, he also visited the incident spot.
According to home minister K J George, it's not the three-inch wide borewells that are posing problems, but the ones that are six and nine inches wide as children are falling into them. "There is no company in the state that drills nine-inch borewells. But agencies drilling six-inch borewells are abandoning them when fail to find water," he said.
More measures in place
RDPR department additional chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar has directed DCs and chief executive officers (CEO) to conduct a survey in their districts to identify functional and non-functional borewells.
He also asked the district administration to create awareness by writing slogans like "cover borewells and avoid children falling into it" on the walls of prominent locations in villages.
Govt has made it mandatory to get a no-objection certificate (NoC) from the district administration for both functional and non-functional borewells
The panchayat development officer, assistant executive engineer and executive engineer have been made accountable for maintaining records of functional and non-functional borewells
Grassroot level officers have been made part of a committee headed by deputy commissioner (DC) and they have to give a monthly report to the DC on borewells in their jurisdiction.
Also Read: Efforts on to rescue boy trapped in borewell
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