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The Andhra Pradesh government issued a new industrial water allotment policy on Saturday making the process simpler and faster. Under the new policy, the district and state level investment promotion committees (DIPC and SIPC) will approve the applications for allotment of water for industrial use within seven days.
In the past, any file related to water allotment for industrial use had to be processed by the irrigation department before it was sent for a final approval by the state government, causing delays in processing of such requests.
Now, the government has empowered the industrial promotion committees headed by the district collector at the district level and by the chief secretary at the state level to make the allotments. However, these allotments have to be made in accordance with the existing water utilisation policy under which the government had allocated 10 per cent of water in each reservoir for industrial use.
Any fresh allotment of water for industrial use should be made within this 10 per cent limits and in case of inadequate water levels, the available water has to be utilised on a prorata basis among various requirements.
Though 10 per cent of water is allocated for industrial use in the state, hardly 1 per cent is being supplied to industries at present. This apart, the present policy gives last preference to industry. Also most of the industrial requirement is being currently met by usage of groundwater, the government admitted in its orders.
In addition to simplifying the procedures, the government also introduced a new concept under which a group of industries can establish their own balancing reservoirs.
“The policy permits industries in general to utilise existing government reservoirs for storage of surplus water for industrial use. In the absence of such reservoirs, government land will be provided wherever possible to construct balancing reservoirs for storage of surplus water if a group of industries come together and are willing to undertake the construction of such facilities at their own cost,” JSV Prasad, principal secretary, industries department, stated in his orders.
