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Indian regional government owns the rain !!!!

  • 12-07-2001 2:23pm
    #1
    C B
    Closed Accounts Posts: 616 ✭✭✭


    I got this story by mail just now from a reputable source. It's simply insane.
    The ultimate tyranny: The government claims it owns the rain

    THEREFORE, RAINWATER HARVESTING IS ILLEGAL

    What do you say when the state declares that it has a right over every drop of rain ? That every nallah(drain),dry or otherwise belongs to the state? That you can be
    arrested without a warrant if you so much as capture a raindrop that may fall in the catchment of a nallah?

    IT DOES NOT MATTER IF THE STATE CANNOT GIVE YOU WATER.
    YOU, HOWEVER, HAVE NO RIGHT TO HELP YOUSELF.

    UNBELIEVABLE? Read On.....

    The Rajasthan state government is bent on destroying the earthen check dam built on the river Ruparel by the villagers to capture the rain. Their strategy is
    simple: Rather than risk the backlash of actually demolishing the structure, the irrigation department engineers are
    forcing the villagers to reduce the height of the spillway to an extent that it will effectively render the structure redundant.

    Terming the efforts of the villagers as illegal, the state irrigation minister, Kamla Beniwal, has gone so far as to declare that every drop of rain belongs to the government.

    As recent as March, Lava ka Baas village in Thanagazi tehsil of Rajasthan was like many other water-scarce villages in the country: facing the devastation caused by drought for the third year. With a population of about 500 and only one water source, agriculture was a distant dream.
    Many hectares of farmland lay bare.

    But on March 12, 2001, the villagers started work on what they thought would change their destiny. They began constructing an johad. The villagers were optimistic and united in their intent. They had been convinced of the wisdom of building a johad or check dam on a tributary of the Ruparel right on the top of its watershed by the workers of Tarun
    Bharat Sangh (TBS) , a non-governmental organisation based in Alwar.

    It is because of this faith that the poor villagers contributed Rs 3 lakh of the Rs 8 lakh that was required for johad construction purposes. The remaining Rs 5 lakh was donated by a businessperson from Churu district.


    The 80-metre long and 12-metre high johad was completed in a record time of less than four months. Gopal Singh of TBS, a veteran gajdhar or rural enginneer, with many johads to his credit helped design the johad. And
    then the irrigation department landed up at the johad site with the objective of demolishing the structure. Why? Because the johad violated an agreement on water sharing signed between the princely states of Alwar
    and Bharatpur in 1910. The modus operandi: That the structure is unsafe.

    The villagers were up in arms and gathered at the site determined not to let the government destroy what had given them something so precious as water.

    Sensing the mood, the officials changed their tactics. They declared the
    structure unsafe and asked the villagers to reduce the height of the spillway to a point that would make the structure redundant. The
    villagers are standing vigil over their structure.

    CSE has been consistently promoting the paradigm of community rainwater
    harvesting as the paradigm to fight drought and alleviate poverty. So when on July 1, a disturbed Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh called up, CSE chairperson Anil Agarwal and director Sunita Narain, CSE decided to intervene. Attempts were made to reach chief minister Ashok Gehlot and
    send newspaper and TV journalists to the site and CSE staffers to get a first hand. The story has also been covered in the 31st July issue of Down to Earth.

    We need your support to fight a bureaucracy that stakes claim over the rain that falls in your backyard. That makes rainwater-harvesting illegal. We urge you to tell us how you can help. Can you

    a) Write to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot?
    b) Visit the johad site and stand vigil with the villagers?
    c) Send us your suggestions or what else we can do or you can help us to do.

    The issue is gathering support. 102 year old Balwant Singh Mehta of Udaipur has written to Chief Minister Gehlot that he will sit on the johad even at his age if the government were to try and destroy the
    structure.
    More info at:
    http://www.cseindia.org/html/cmp/cmp43.htm


Comments

  • #2
    Victor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,574 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Not quite the same, but not that far off - windmills need to pay royalties.

    BUNREACHT NA hÉIREANN

    CONSTITUTION OF IRELAND

    Article 10

    All natural resources, including the air and all forms of potential energy, within the jurisdiction of the Parliament and Government established by this Constitution and all royalties and franchises within that jurisdiction belong to the State subject to all estates and interests therein for the time being lawfully vested in any person or body.

    Too many freaks, not enough circuses.

    [This message has been edited by Victor (edited 12-07-2001).]


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