Include ground water in concurrent list: Montek

Planning commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia feels that the national water policy, which considers water as a precious national asset, is at loggerheads with the law which entitles free and unlimited use of ground water.

Speaking at the national symposium on ground water governance organised by the Union Water Resources Ministry today, he also called for the need to include ground water in the concurrent list, besides criticising the UPA government's model Bill on ground water which has been rejected by most states.

He said that the Indian Easement Act 1882 which allows owners of land unlimited rights to draw ground water in their property militates against the idea of conserving ground water and treating it as a national asset.

However, the National Ground Water Board feels that the 128 years old law is fine but there has been a misinterpretation at work.

Board chairman Saleem Romani said that the law has been misread. It says that "the right of the owner of land to collect and dispose within his own limits of all water under the land which does not pass in a defined channel," has been only partially been followed.

People read only half of the law which says that the owner of the land has right on all water under the land. What follows is crucial in protecting the ground water from abuse, he says.

The second half is about right to water that does not pass in a defined channel. The owner has no right on water that flows in a continuous defined channel, Romani said.

He said that the model Bill on ground water has provision for formation of block level committees with representatives from the central water board to monitor these fine points.

He said he has conveyed this subtle aspect of the law to Ahluwalia following his lecture.

Ahluwalia earlier said that water would be a priority in the 11th Five Year plan and he called for a need to include ground water in the concurrent list.

Since inter state rivers is in the concurrent list, ground water aquifers which are in a continuous flow and cannot be bound by state boundaries should be in the concurrent list.