Indiscriminate water waste is regrettable – HC, Orissa

Industries are given prior importance in water supply than the common people, which is regrettable says Orissa High Court. A full bench of the HC comprising chief Justice AS Chauhan, Justice I Mohanty and S.C. Parija expressing their dissatisfaction over the matter directed the State Govt. to inform it on the procedure grant of license for supply of water to industrial sectors. The Court wanted to know who was the authority dealing on such a serious public issue like water, the guidelines, information about the availability of water on scientific data base including agricultural need and the permission for drawing water from natural sources for industries was granted. The bench also directed the govt. to know how many applications seeking for water supply, has been rejected. A secretary ranked officer should file the affidavit in two weeks and the next hearing date has been fixed for March 18.

Several industries like JK Corporation, Ballarpur industries, Tata Steel, SAIL, Orissa, Synthetics, L & T, Shakti Sugar and Jayshree Chemicals Challenging the water tax imposed by the state govt. filed a batch of writ petition in the court and on which the court directed the govt. in response. One among the group, the Jayshree Chemicals** disagreed with the govt. that why will they pay the water tax when they draws water from their own land putting up infrastructure and huge amount of investment. So the writ petition was whether they were liable to pay? So the dangers of unrestricted channelisation of water for industrial use and its impending hazard care into focus. It also came to the notice that there was neither any proper guideline for allowing drawing of water from natural sources by industries based on their requirement and proper control over water sources. These may give rise to serious problems in times to come, the court observed.