SHILLONG, MAY 21: The Public Health Engineering (PHE) Chief Engineer informed on Wednesday that the Supreme Court has issued guidelines on measures for prevention of fatal accidents of small children due to falling into abandoned bore-wells.
In its guidelines, the Supreme Court has directed land owners to inform the authority 15 days in advance in writing before constructing bore well or tube well.
The apex court said it is also mandatory to register the drilling agencies with the district administration and signboard should be displayed at the time of construction near the well with complete address of the drilling agency at the time of construction and address of the owner of the well.
The apex court has direct of proper fencing with barbed wire or any suitable barrier should be done around the well during construction and construction of cement concrete platform measuring 0.50 x 0.50 x 0.60 meter around the well casing, the chief engineer said.
The chief engineer informed it is also mandatory to ensure capping of well assembly by welding steel plate or by providing a strong cap to be fixed to the casing pipe with bolts and nuts and in case of pump repair, the tube well should not be left uncovered.
The chief engineer said the district collector should be empowered to verify that the guidelines are being followed and proper monitoring check about the status of bore holes, tube wells are being taken care through the concerned state or central government agencies.
The guidelines further directed the district administration to maintain the district, block and village wise status of bore wells and tube well drilled including number of wells in use, number of abandoned bore well and tube wells found open, number of abandoned bore well properly filled up to ground level and balance.
In rural areas, the monitoring exercise is to be done through village sarpanch and the executive from the Agriculture department and in urban, it is to be done through the junior engineer and executive from departments of ground water, public health, Municipal Corporation.
If a bore well or tube well is abandoned at any stage, a certificate from the concerned department of Ground Water/Public Health/Municipal Corporation/private contractor etc must be obtained by the aforesaid agencies that the abandoned bore wells/tube wells is properly filled up to the ground level.
The concerned department should also conduct random inspection of the abandoned wells, the chief engineer quoted the apex court directive.- By Our Reporter
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