Cuttack, May 3: The state government's bid to create a Water Conservation Fund (WCF) with one-time contribution from industries has hit a roadblock with Orissa High Court issuing an interim stay on the move.
The state cabinet had on May 15 last year passed a resolution for the creation of WCF and said that the corpus would be created with money from industries that draw water from rivers and reservoirs. A one-time contribution of Rs 2.5 crores was proposed for industries drawing one cusec or more of water.
The government has, however, passed another resolution on November 3, 2015, that granted the industries the liberty to pay the WCF contribution in five equal instalments. Subsequently, letter of demands were issued to the industries.
Industries drawing water from rivers and reservoirs for purposes other than irrigation were being charged annually Rs 60,000 per cusec of water since 1990 under the Odisha Irrigation Act. The rate was enhanced to Rs 1.5 lakh for every cusec of water following amendment of the act in 2010.
Bhusan Power and Steel Ltd, Bhusan Steel Ltd, New Delhi and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd filed separate petitions challenging the two resolutions. Confederation of Captive Power Plants, Odisha, also filed a petition seeking quashing of the two resolutions. The imposition of the one-time contribution was "exploitative, unilateral and out and out illegal", the petitions said.
The petitions came up for hearing on Monday. "The division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi posted the matter to May 17 and in the interim directed the state government not to give effect to the two resolutions till then," advocate general Surya Prasad Mishra told The Telegraph today.
"However, the interim order was issued only on the three individual petitions and not on the petition filed by the Confederation of Captive Power Plants," Mishra said. The court has issued notice to the state government asking it to reply by May 17.
The dispute raised by the petitions centres round the contention that the imposition of the one-time contribution is "not backed by any legislative sanction and is in the nature of collection of tax / fee not authorised under law".
"There is no approval either by Parliament or the state legislature to collect such Water Conservation Fund by the state government. Hence, both the resolutions passed by the state water resources department and the letter of demands are liable to be quashed," the petition filed by Confederation of Captive Power Plants, Odisha, contends.
"The demand by way of compulsory contribution being arbitrarily and exorbitantly high is not commensurate with the proposed services, if any to be provided. Therefore it has no characteristics of fees and is in reality a tax in the garb if a fee / contribution to WCF," the petition says.
The state government plans to utilise the WCF for construction of different water conservation projects - medium irrigation projects, minor irrigation projects, dams, barrages, weirs, bridge-cum barrages, check-dams for conservation of water to be used during lean season for agriculture purposes. These structural interventions will also recharge ground water extensively.
