Government sets terms on drilling borewells

BENGALURU: The government has directed panchayat-level officials not to permit people to drill borewells unless they furnish digital evidence to show they have closed all the failed ones in farmlands.

The directive comes in the backdrop of the death of six-year-old Kaveri inside an open

borewell

at

Jhunjurawadi

village in

Belagavi

district's

Athani

taluk recently.

The girl's body was found at 28 feet in the 400-foot-deep borewell; it took over 56 hours for rescue personnel to trace her.

Rural development and panchayat raj minister H K Patil on Thursday said it has been made mandatory for land owners to close all failed borewells. “Open borewells have turned out to be death-traps and the victims are mostly children,“ he said.