Over 15% of 15,000 village ponds encroached upon

A senior officer in the Rural Development Department admitted that “15 to 20 per cent ponds across the state are facing encroachment problem” that is either permanent or temporary.

Written by Anju Agnihotri Chaba | Jalandhar | July 16, 2020 10:31:41 am

Over 15% of 15,000 village ponds encroached upon.  One of the ponds before and after restoration. Express photo

As the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered removal of all kinds of encroachments from village ponds to revive, repair and rejuvenate them, reports from the ground revealed that “around 15 to 20 per cent of village ponds” in the state have been encroached upon illegally.

While cleaning and maintenance of these ponds is under the Rural Development and Panchayat Department, some village ponds have been rejuvenated by the Department of Soil and Water Conservation, Punjab, for irrigation purpose.

A senior officer in the Rural Development Department admitted that “15 to 20 per cent ponds across the state are facing encroachment problem” that is either permanent or temporary.

Village ponds are common lands that are governed by Punjab Village Common Land (Regulation) Act, 1961. There are over 13,000 villages in Punjab that have around 15,000 ponds/water bodies.

Under permanent encroachment, pucca houses have been constructed by the people, while under temporary encroachment, poor landless people from low-caste communities have been using it for keeping their cattle, storing fodder, growing vegetables and making cowdung cakes.

“As per norms, five-marla plots are to be provided to the poor and landless residents of the village belonging to the SC community provided Shamlat land is available with the village panchayat. There are many such instances where Shamlat land is available and even resolutions have been passed by the previous gram panchayats for distributing this land among the poor and landless, but actual physical distribution and handing over these plots to those eligible have yet not been made. This has led to encroachment of ponds,” said the senior functionary of the Rural Development Department.

He added that there were only few reports of illegal mining as it is difficult to execute due to the close proximity of the ponds to villages.

District Development and Panchyat Officers (DDPO), Jalandhar, Iqbaljeet Singh, said that there are total 815 village ponds in Jalandhar and there are some reports of encroachments, which will be cleared.

DDPO, Kapurthala, Harcharan Singh Sandhu, said there are some cases of encroachments left, while during pre-monsoon cleaning temporary encroachments were cleared.

“For removal of permanent encroachments, we are getting the eviction orders under Section 7 of the Act,” said another DDPO of Doaba region.

Currently, the department is taking up the dewatering and desilting campaign of these ponds with the help of panchayat funds and NRI donations. This campaign was started last year. All the wastewater from households flows into these ponds.

“With the increase in piped drinking water supply system to the households in villages, the water flowing into these ponds has increased considerably over the years. Often village ponds are seen overflowing and water enters houses becoming a source of several diseases,” said DDPO Sandhu, adding that with dewatering and desilting now this problem has been arrested in the majority of the villages.

As for as importance of village ponds is concerned, DDPO, Kapurthala, said: “Village ponds are highly useful water bodies as they not only carry wastewater of all the households, but also if managed properly this water can be highly useful for irrigation purpose after filtration and cleaning…Also these ponds are being used for fish culture after cleaning which helps in keeping the pond clean and is a source of earning for poor villagers.”

Lupinder Kumar, Divisional Soil Conservation Officer, Jalandhar, said: “Pond water is helping in recharging of groundwater and assured irrigation for several farmers in the respective villages.”

The Department of Soil and Water Conservation Punjab, sources said, has rejuvenated 54 village ponds of over-exploited blocks’ of eight districts of Punjab and this is helping in irrigating 1,139 hectares (2,813 acres) in these villages.

With Punjab’s 80 per cent agricultural blocks over-exploited, these ponds can change the groundwater scenario to some extent.

Sources added that under current rejuvenation schemes, water holding capacity of the pond is increased which is used for irrigation as stagnant water in these ponds leads to various health hazards in the villages besides numerous other environmental, economic and social impacts.

Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) president Joinder Singh said that there are negligible cases of mining linked to village ponds.

 

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/over-15-of-15000-village-ponds-encroached-upon-6508291/