Ahead of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023, a report has claimed that 20 cricket stadiums in India have installed borewells/tubewells for extracting groundwater without obtaining a No Objection Certificate (NOC).
According to The Indian Express, the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) has claimed these findings in a report submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Earlier this year NGT, after receiving an application against the usage of groundwater to maintain cricket grounds in the country, had asked MoJS to file a status report.
After that, they carried out inspections at around 26 cricket stadiums in the country with 24 of them found using tubewells/borwells to extract groundwater.
Only four of them including M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, VCA Stadium in Nagpur, and JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi have taken NOC.
Twelve were found to be partially compliant with the parameters that include; having either ‘rainwater harvesting systems or sewage treatment plants or both’ and nine stadiums did not have a NOC for any parameter.
The Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi and Eden Gardens of Kolkata are among the venues that didn’t obtain NOCs for extracting groundwater.
“It was found that 24 out of the 26 stadiums inspected have borewells/tubewells for extraction of groundwater, out of which only four stadiums had groundwater NOC. Subsequently, show cause notices have been sent to the 20 stadiums on June 27, 2023, directing them to explain the reason as to why NOC was not sought from the concerned department…,” Hindustan Times quoted the report submitted by the ministry to NGT.
The report added that in July, the MoJS asked cricket associations to install rainwater harvesting systems within three months.
The ODI World Cup will be played in India from October 5 to November 19 across 10 venues including Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Dharamshala, Lucknow, Pune, and Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, in June, Central Groundwater Authority issued show-cause notices to 20 stadiums for not seeking NOC and asked why they not be penalised for illegally extracting groundwater.
Comments
0 comment