Supreme Court asks States to cap all abandoned borewells

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked all the States to cap all discarded and abandoned borewells in their territories and to properly fence all working wells to prevent small children falling into them.

A three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice C.K. Prasad gave this direction on a letter written to the CJI in February 2009 about a number of small children falling into open borewells resulting in their death.

The letter was treated as a public interest petition and notice was issued to all the States.

In a brief order the Bench said the owner of the land/premises, before taking any steps for constructing borewell / tubewell must inform in writing at least 15 days in advance to the authorities concerned in the area, ie. District Collector/District Magistrate / Sarpanch of the Gram panchayat, as the case might be about the construction of the borewell / tubewell.

The Bench said during construction barbed wire fencing must be erected or any other suitable barrier should be put around the well.

The Bench said the abandoned borewells should be filed by clay/sand/boulders / pebbles/ etc from bottom to ground level.

In rural areas, the monitoring and execution were to be done by panchyat raj institutions and in urban areas by the municipal corporation / Public Health department.

In its affidavit, the Centre said that the District Collector/District Magistrate / Sarpanch should take legal action by initiating criminal or civil proceedings against those responsible for any accident.

They must ensure that all safety measures were taken by the agencies during the construction of borewell / tubewell.