BENGALURU: To put an end to children falling into open borewells, the State government is amending the law and bringing in stringent measures, including a one-year jail term for those who fail to close them.
Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting, Law Minister HK Patil said the cabinet has given approval to the Minor Irrigation and Ground Water Development Department’s proposed Karnataka Groundwater (Regulation and Control of Development Management) Amendment Bill, 2024. He said at many places, borewells were left open and safety measures were not taken, like closing them with a cap.
Explaining, Patil said a few years ago, a child fell and got stuck inside a borewell in Bagalkote. Since then, there have been discussions on safety measures.
“If the owner digs a borewell and it fails, they have to fill it. the Bill has been proposed to bring in stringent action and avoid such incidents. The land owner who digs the borewell, the agency which takes up borewell drilling will be held responsible if the borewell is not closed.
Rs 5K fine, 3 months in jail if you sink borewell sans nod, safety measures
The violators will be sent to jail for one year and a penalty of Rs 10,000 will be levied. Also, if the borewell is dug up without permission and violates safety norms, Rs 5,000 and three months in jail have been proposed. He, however, said officials are not included in the bill.
Nine bills were approved by the cabinet. Patil said under the Karnataka Workers’ Welfare Amendment Bill 2024, the contribution of labour, owner and government was Rs 20, Rs 40 and Rs 20 respectively, that was given to worker welfare funds.
Now, this has been made Rs 50 from labour, Rs 100 from the owner and Rs 50 from the government to the corpus funds. We were collecting Rs 42 crore earlier and with the new amendment, we are expecting to collect Rs 100 crore per year. The money was spent on workers in large amounts, including during Covid-19 time.