Groundwater tapping to be priced in Uttarakhand

Dehradun: Industrial units, builders in the housing sector, commercial and government establishments in Uttarakhand will now have to pay a price for tapping the groundwater resources.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Harish Rawat late last night to discuss measures to create new avenues of income generation in the state, an official release here said.

Noting that the state needs to generate its own economic resources, Rawat said industrial units, builders in the housing sector, commercial and government institutes that are utilizing the state's groundwater resources for their own purposes will now be charged for it.

He asked officials to work out the modalities for imposing a price on large scale utilization of groundwater.

It will create a new source of revenue and help the state cope with the increased burden on its coffers due to the Centre's changed policies and priorities, Rawat said referring to 14th Finance Commission's recommendation for withdrawal of Uttarakhand's special category status and revision of Centre-State ratio in centrally aided schemes from 90:10 to 50:50.

However, asserting that revenue generation measures by the state government should not put additional burden on the common man, the Chief Minister asked officials to reduce water surcharge from the current five per cent to 1.5 per cent and also bring down the annual hike of 15 per cent in water prices to nine per cent.