Tuesday
October 16, 2012
Ranjan
Panda
"In
Odisha, what we can see as ground reality is that more and more water
bodies are being encroached by the rich and powerful both in urban
and rural areas. Now, after the Odisha High Court judgement,
the government must immediately step into action and free all water
bodies of Odisha from encroachment.”
As
we come to know from media reports, the Honourable High Court of
Odisha has directed the government of Odisha to formulate a law to
protect water bodies of the state within two years. Water Initiatives
Odisha (WIO) welcomes this judgement and thanks the Honourable Court
for this.
On
January 28, 2011 the honourable Supreme Court of India, in a historic
judgement, had directed all the State Governments of the country to
prepare schemes for eviction of illegal/ unauthorized occupants of
Gram Sabha/ Gram Panchayat/ Poramboke/ Shamlat land saying these must
be restored to the Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat for the common use of
villagers of the village. WIO had then urged upon the Government of
Odisha to see to the issues raised by this judgment and take
appropriate action to free all water bodies of the state from all
sorts of encroachments and ensure their protection and revival from
the destructive forces including pollution from industries and
urbanization.
As
of now we don’t know what steps the state government has taken in
that regard. What we can see as ground reality is that more and more
water bodies are being encroached by the rich and powerful both in
urban and rural areas. Now, after the High Court judgement, the
government must immediately step into action and free all water
bodies of the state from encroachment.
Surface
water bodies play a major role in retaining rain water and recharging
the local ecology. They are also a major livelihood support system
for many poor farmers and communities depending on fishery. WIO
therefore urges upon the government to immediately declare a Plan of
Action to free all water bodies of state from all forms of
encroachment.
Freeing
water bodies from encroachments would also lead to some discontent
among local people and some people might have to be displaced. The
government must sensitively look into such issues and where it
involves displacement of poor people the government should talk to
them in a cohesive manner and provide appropriate rehabilitation.
However,
where the water bodies are encroached by the rich and powerful such
as estate developments and private builders they should be heavily
fined and directed to restore the water bodies with their own funds.
Odisha is already a water stressed state and we can no more neglect
water bodies, WIO urges.
WIO
has been urging upon the state government to formulate a Policy on
Water Bodies. Time the government starts discussing with people and
experts on this and builds a strong Policy to protect, preserve and
rejuvenate all water bodies of the state. The state must ensure that
not a single water body dies of encroachment, industrialization,
pollution and urbanisation, WIO demands.
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Right 2004 @ HOTnHIT Newsfeatures, Bhubaneswar, INDIA.
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