Village ponds in sohna block of gurgaon district

we have been hearing about the overutilization of groundwater in gurgaon district. we have been hearing fervant appeals by district administration officials and ngos regarding to conserve water(it is a different matter that the appeal maker is usually the one who would be the least sensitive on water issues. if you think i am wrong visit any of the government offices in the district and see the way overhead water tanks are overflowing, government cars are being washed and extremely few offices having a rain water harvesting system)

i have managed to compile a list of village ponds or johads in sohna block. this is the status of these ponds on paper.

a lot of these ponds have been already encroached upon(as you might have seen in the last video of the sukhrali johad in village sukhrali next to NH-8) or are in the process of being enchroached upon. village ponds are extremely low cost and efficient water harvesting systems which our elders knew how to use.

Block Sohna

Name of the village Approx size of the Village village pond/johad
Hajipur 4 acres 1 acre 1 acre
Ghaghonla 1 acre 1.5 acres 1.25 acres 1 acre 2 acres 1.5 acres
Johlaka 2 acres
Badshapur 1 acre 0.5 acre
Nunera 1.5 acres
Kharoda 0.5 acre
Sancholi 1.25 acres 2 acres
Kherla 4 acres
Chuharpur 1 acre 1 acre
Tolni 1.5 acres
Rani ka Sigola 1 acre
Baluda 2 acres
Kulyika 1 acre 1 acre
Karanki Khedli 2 acres 4.5 acres 4 acres
Damdama 1.5 acres 1.5 acres 1 acre
Lakhuwas 2 acres 2.5 acres 2 acres
Bilahaka 2 acres
Silani 2 acres 2 acres 1 acre 1 acre 1 acre 2 acres
Alipur 2 acres 2 acres
Nimoth 1 acre 1 acre
Rahaka 1 acre 1 acre
Dhunela 1 acre 1.5 acres 2 acres
Berka 1 acre
Dhaula 1 acre 0.5 acre
Badshapur Thether 1 acre
Gharatpur Bas 2 acres
Ullawas 1 acre
Behrampur 0.5 acre
Kadarpur 1 acre
Saap ki nangli 0.5 acre
Raisena 1 acre
Mehandwara 0.5 acre
Lohtaki 0.5 acre
Khaika 1 acre
Mohd. pur gujjar 0.5 acre
Khuntpuri 2 acres 1 acre
Sahajawas 1 acre
Ghamroj 1.5 acres

TOTAL NO. OF PONDS : 67

Johad in village sukhrali, Gurgaon

a video on youtube about the sukhrali johad. it is a 2-4 acre johad right on NH-8. an excellent place to do rainwater harvesting. all the rain water from the highway can be harvested in this johad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St-bqdn8nXA

from gurgaon to jajjhar

as i drove down from gurgaon to jhajjar i clicked a few photos. here they are for your pleasure

Drinking in the greens

a liquor outlet in the green belt at dhanwapur road. the forest and the excise department, where are you????

Safai Karamcharis and the state of cleanliness in gurgaon city

Sulabh International has been given the contract for cleanliness in large parts of gurgaon city. As per the contract signed between H.U.D.A and Sulabh international, the organisation after sweeping the streets will pickup solid waste to be disposed off at a predetermined place as designated or instructed by H.U.D.A or haryana urban development authority. I am not aware if contracts have been signed with other authorities or agencies in gurgaon by sulabh international.

The contract signed with H.U.D.A also carries a clause that the solid waste will not be burnt and has to be disposed off. In case solid waste is burnt a penalty will be charged. (Here in the above photos you can see sulabh safai karamcharis smoking while garbage is burning. The karamcharis can be identified with the blue overall with Sulabh written across the back)

With the tolerance levels exhibited by both our administrators and citizens solid waste is regularly burnt irrespective of the fact both residents of gurgaon and the sweeper staff are aware of the environmental and health effects of burning garbage. The status quo remains as nobody wants to bell the cat. The residents are too lazy to object with a large number of residents encouraging the sweepers to burn garbage whereas the sweepers are too lazy to pick up and dispose garbage and in the absence of anybody objecting are too happy to burn garbage and laze around.

If the solution for cleanliness of the city is by burning garbage and if a large number of residents feel no problem in burning garbage and in fact burn garbage themselves then why does the district administration waste so much money (what i heard is that the sulabh contract was worth over 70lacs) in hiring a cleaning agency. let everybody fend for themselves, clean the place and burn the garbage. At least that money can be diverted into some better use.

water security for gurgaon

An interesting press release from the public relations department Haryana caught my eye regarding water security in gurgaon.

“ The Chief Secretary directed the Deputy Commissioners of both Gurgaon and Jhajjar districts to ensure that water supply in Gurgaon water channel be not disrupted. He asked the Gurgaon DC to prepare a contingency plan for meeting out the water crisis, in case the channel was breached as it was done in last March and Gurgaon faced a severe water crisis.
The Deputy Commissioner Gurgaon apprised the Chief Secretary that the water treatment plant at Basai was being augmented by HUDA at the cost of Rs. 13.84 crore and the work would be completed by February next year. After the augmentation, the Basai plant will able to treat 60 MGD raw water. However the water storage capacity today is sufficient for four days. An additional water works was proposed on 133 acre land of village Chandu-Budhera, costing Rs. 86 crore. The process of acquiring land for this new water works was going on. After the completion of this water works the storage capacity would be enhanced to ten days. Also a NCR Channel was under construction at a cost of Rs. 322 crore from which Gurgaon would get 800 Cusec of water plus a Rs.. 65 crore project was also prepared for providing canal based drinking water in Sohna.

So what is the cost of the above PROPOSED works rs 13.84cr for augmentation + rs 86 cr for additional water works + rs 322 cr for ncr channel + rs 65 cr for canal from sohna = Rs 486.84 cr.

1. does rs 486.84 cr provide a water security? I don’t think so
2. where does water come for the additional water works? From the gurgaon canal which comes from jhajjar district which was breeched by villagers this march, so there is no security surely.
3. where does ncr canal get the water? 800cusec is the rate of flow, what quantity of water is assured and where will it be treated is not known. And if 800 cusec is the rate of flow would this canal not supply water to other areas besides gurgaon?
4. where is the water coming from sohna? Mewat district does not have water and is just 20kms from sohna and we are getting a canal to gurgaon.

If somebody in the system tried a little common sense then with 1/10th the cost we can harvest a huge amount of rain water. ( rough calculations tell me that 34million cum of rainwater goes via sewage into the najafgarh drain from gurgaon). We can even harvest the najafgarh flood plain or the najafgarh jheel.(part of this lies inside gurgaon district).

But then government works on grandiose schemes and proposals. Common sense is not a very valued item as it does not raise eyebrows or fills pockets as rs 486.84 cr does.

Here is the text of a press release from public relations office of haryana government. Ity reads " Chandigarh, Sept 5 - The Haryana Compulsory Registration of MarriagesAct, 2008 came into effect in the State from July 16, 2008 and theevery marriage solemnized in the State after this date irrespective ofcaste, religion or creed will have to be got registered compulsorily.The parties to a marriage shall prepare and sign a memorandum onprescribed form and deliver or send it by registered post induplicate to the Registrar of the Area concerned in which the marriagewas solemnized or the ordinary place of residence of the bride/herparents or the bridegroom/his parents within a period of 90 days fromthe date of marriage.The memorandum should be accompanied prescribed fee in the form ofcourt fee stamps and attested by the person prescribed for thispurpose. The Registrar concerned on being satisfied that there is noobjection to register the marriage, shall register the same within theprescribed period. If in the opinion of the Registrar, the marriage isnot fit for registration, he shall pass an order of refusal in writtenafter recording the reasons and send the duplicate copy thereof to theDistrict Registrar.The persons who were married prior to the date of commencement ofthis Act, may also get their marriage registered, if they areresidents of the State at the time of registration of the marriage,subject to the terms and conditions as mentioned in sub-sections (2),(3) and (4). The persons, who have married outside the State but areresidents of the State, may also get their marriage registered in theState as per provisions of sub-section (1), subject to the terms andconditions as mentioned in the sub-sections (2), (3) and (4). However,the marriage already registered outside the State will not beregistered again in the State.Any person aggrieved by the order of the Registrar refusing toregister the marriage to under sub-section (4) of section 7 may,within a period of 90 days from the date of receipt of such order,appeal to the District Registrar, who after giving an hearingopportunity to the party concerned, may pass an order confirming theorder of the Registrar or after recording the reasons in writing,direct the Registrar concerned to register the marriage or may passsuch orders as he may deem fit.Any person aggrieved by the order of the District Registrar refusingto register the marriage under section 8, may within a period of 90days from the date of receipt of such order, appeal to the ChiefRegistrar, who after giving an hearing opportunity to the partyconcerned, may pass an order confirming the order of the DistrictRegistrar or Registrar concerned or after recording the reasons inwriting, direct the District Registrar or Registrar concerned, as thecase may be to register the marriage or may pass such orders as he maydeem fit.The Registrar shall maintain a register of marriages solemnized inthe State. On receipt of the memorandum of marriage under section 7,the Registrar shall make a record of the same in the register.On registration of the marriage, the Registrar shall issue acertificate of marriage to the parties.The registration of marriages will mitigate the problem of Indianwomen trapped in fraudulent Overseas marriages. It will also mitigatethe problems of dowry, concealment of earlier existing marriages,marriages of convenience, etc. "

So in district gurgaon if i wish to marry and get it registered where do i go? I suppose the office of the district registrar. No who is the registrar? one way to do so is to check the official website of haryana http://haryana.gov.in/ . i am sure with the amount of money haryana spends in IT and their desire to make it an IT enabled state(remember gurgaon is the largest exporter of software in the country) . There is no information in the latest releases even though the law came into forec on July 16 2008 and a press release was released on Sept 5, 2008. I guess this should say it all. however i decided persist and i went into the official site of gurgaon district http://gurgaon.nic.in/ . The header says " where dreams are talking shape" but i could not find whom to get my marriage registered. So i guess the next best thing is to go to the mini secretariat and grope my way about . OR i may say well who care's . So much for laws and following it.