Himachal Pradesh Ground Water (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Act, 2005
No: 31 Dated: Oct, 28 2005
THE HIMACHAL PRADESH GROUND WATER (REGULATION AND CONTROL OF DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT) ACT, 2005
(ACT NO. 31 OF 2005)
An Act to regulate and control the development and management of ground water and matters connected therewith.
BE it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of Himachal Pradesh in the Fifty-sixth Year of the Republic of India, as follows:-
1. Short title and commencement.- (1) This Act may be called the Himachal Pradesh Ground Water (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Act, 2005.
(2) It shall come into force on such date as the state Government may by notification, in the Official Gazette, appoint.
2. Definitions.- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) “Act” means the Himachal Pradesh Ground Water (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Act, 2005;
(b) “artificial recharge to ground water” means the process by which ground water reservoir is augmented beyond the natural condition of replenishment;
(c) “Authority” means the Himachal Pradesh Ground Water Authority established under section 3 of this Act;
(d) “drinking water” means water for consumption or use by human population for drinking and for other domestic purposes, which shall include consumption or use of water for cooking, bathing, washing, cleansing and other day-to-day activities and shall include water meant for consumption by the livestock ;
(e) “exploitation limit” means such limit where the estimated annual ground water extraction is more than eighty-five percent of the estimated average annual ground water recharge;
(f) “Government” or “State Government” means the Government of Himachal Pradesh;
(g) “ground water” means the water which exists below the ground surface in the zone of saturation and can be extracted through wells or any other means or emerges as springs and base flows in streams and rivers;
(h) “notified area” means the area notified under section 5 (5) of this Act ;
(i) “Official Gazette” means the Rajpatra of Himachal Pradesh; (j) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(k) “rain water harvesting” is the process of collection and storage of rain water at surface or in sub-surface aquifer;
(l) “royalty” means the royalty payable to the State Government under section 12 of this Act;
(m) “sink” with all its grammatical variations and cognate expression in relation to a well includes any digging, drilling or boring of new wells or deepening of the existing wells;
(n) “State” means the State of Himachal Pradesh;
(o) “user of ground water” means a person or an institution including a company or an industry or an establishment, whether Government or not, who or which uses ground water for any purpose excluding domestic use;
(p) “well” means a structure sunk for the search or extraction of ground water by any person, except by the authorized officials of the State or Central Government, for carrying out scientific investigations, exploration, development, augmentation, conservation, protection or management of ground water and shall include open well, dug well, bore well, dug-cum-bore well, tube well, filter point, collector well, infiltration gallery, recharge well, disposal well, or any of their combinations or variations, except any manually operated device for extraction of ground water.