A division bench of the Bombay high court on Tuesday pulled up the state government for not utilising its funds to adopt proper technology for effective usage of water for irrigation, drinking and industrial purposes.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Society for Backlog Remove and Development, Amravati, against the state’s decision to release water to a power company from water reserved for irrigation.
During the hearing, the petitioner prayed that while it had no objection to water being released for M/s Sofia Power Company from the Upper Wardha project, it was opposed to irrigation water being supplied to the company.
The court was informed that of the 302.78 million cubic metres (MCM) of water that was released from the dam in a year, 200 MCM was to be used for irrigation, 77 MCM for drinking and only 24 MCM was to be supplied to industries.
However, with the state agreeing to release 87.7 MCM water to M/s Sofia Power Company, water reserved for irrigation of as much as 23,000 hectares of land was being utilised for industrial purpose.
The counsel for the power company, advocate Vinit Naik, told the court that the company was ready to deposit `116 crore as water restoration charges. He further stated that enough water was available for all the three purposes — irrigation, drinking and industry, but the state had not adopted proper technology for distribution and storage of the same. “The state is not using proper technology to utilise the water,” he said.
The division bench, while hearing the arguments, observed that instead of charging water restoration fees, the state should use the money for technological development.
The court has asked the state to explain what steps it would be taking in this matter. The hearing has been adjourned to October 2.