[Reader-list] ownership business
Pradip Saha
prosaha at hotmail.com
Tue Jul 24 10:37:00 IST 2001
i see a lot of postings here on ownership, "free"dom, "free" information...
A lot of these are in the context of virtual world. I just got to here
something interesting about ownership in the real world. A water harvesting
dam (johad), made by the villagers in Alwar in Rajasthan faces demolishion
by the state govt.'s irrigation department. A water harvesting structure
made by people has been interpreted by the dept. as an obstruction to the
irrigation system. According to Sections 55(3) and 58(2) of the Rajasthan
Irrigation and Drainage Act of 1954, this work is illegal and people can be
arrested without warrant. The minister has gone a few steps ahead and
interpreted these sections in his own way: He's gone on record: "every drop
of water that is received through the rains comes under the irrigation
department."
Maybe true, but it raises one interesting question.
As privatisation of water is knocking at our doors, the alternative paradigm
of resource management that talks about people harvesting and managing their
water does not hold any water.
Raindrops actually belong to the state!
u can check out: http://www.cseindia.org/html/extra/dam/index.htm
pro
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