Borewells, handpumps around Bhanpur Khanti to be sealed: NGT

BHOPAL: Delivering an important judgement in favour of the residents of Bhanpur Khanti, the National Green Tribunal on Tuesday ordered the Bhopal Municipal Corporation to restrict power supply to the borewells and handpumps within 1.5 kilometer of Bhanpur area and also paste the notice on each one of them saying that “Water not fit for drinking due to pollution”.

BMC official Santosh Gupta who appeared in court claimed that currently people are not using water from any of these borewells and handpumps and water is being supplied to them from Narmada for drinking, but the claims were put down by the petitioner Subhash C. Pandey saying that, residents are still using the same water. The water has been polluted due to the presence of hazardous landfill site in the area.

Reacting furiously on BMC, Justice Dalip Singh and expert member S.S. Garbyal gave orders to BMC that according to the reports of PHED (Public health engineering department) and BMC on the quality of groundwater in Bhanpur, there is high quantity of coliform bacteria found which is harming the residents there. Thus submit the report on how these organizations are working in Bhanpur to prevent residents from using polluted drinking water, he said.


According to the report of BMC and PHED, not only the quantity of Bacteria is found 2400 times, but other metals like iron, lead, calcium, magnesium have also been found in higher quantity which can cause cancer and other serious health issues, said environmentalist Subhash C. Pandey.

NGT also notified the concerned officials from district administration, who were not available to present the report of scientific closure and proceedings in construction of new landfill site. The petition for the same was filed in 2013.

Quality council of India, stated that it will submit the report of central observers, under Swacch bharat misson, about Bhopal in next hearing which is scheduled on May 27.