Case 9.3: The pond catchment and the debt to generations
- Hypothetical case
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Syllabus point
- 2: Rit, Rin, Karmavada, duty, the good and virtue
- Values and laws tested
- Rit (natural order), Rin (debt to forebears and to those yet to be born), duty; Articles 48A, 51A(g), Article 21
Illustrative exampleThe pond catchment and the debt to generations
Anita is an Additional District Magistrate in a district of Rajasthan, and the records of water bodies are under her charge. A construction company seeks permission to build a market and a bus stand in the aagor, the catchment, of a village's old johad (rain-fed pond). It would create about 120 jobs, and the village does want a bus stand. The sarpanch supports it. The village elders say that for two hundred years the wells have had water because of this johad, which their ancestors built. The revenue records list the land as the catchment of a water body. The company's representative says, "An alternative site will cost more on paper; you only have to sign once." The file has been on Anita's table for a week, and the company's representative has twice asked her office when she will decide. A teacher at the village school quietly says that in a nearby village the wells ran dry last summer.
- Stakeholders
- Villagers and the generations to come (the weakest party), elders, unemployed youth, the sarpanch, the company, Anita, the water source itself.
- Issue
- development and jobs (an immediate gain) against protecting natural order and the debt to generations (a long-term interest).
- Options
- A. Grant permission (jobs, a happy sarpanch; but the water source is destroyed and the record violated). B. Reject the proposal outright and suggest no alternative (water is safe; but the genuine demand for jobs and a bus stand goes unheard). C. No building in the catchment; suggest alternative land outside any water body, and give local youth work in repairing the johad's catchment.
- Best
- C. Article 48A (the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment); Article 51A(g) (a citizen's duty to protect the natural environment, including lakes and rivers); the Rit view: do not obstruct the natural order.
Lesson
Action: Short term: refuse permission for the catchment with written reasons, list alternative sites, speak with the gram sabha. Long term: a public record of all water bodies and their catchments, a johad committee, and local jobs in repair and water-conservation work.
Practice Questions
Practice questionabout 100 words
(10 marks, 100 words) What decision should Anita take? Solve with the five steps.
Model answer
The stakeholders are the village, future generations, elders, youth, the sarpanch, the company and me. The issue is immediate development against natural order and the debt to generations. The options: grant permission, reject outright, or protect the catchment and offer an alternative site. The first destroys the water source; the second leaves a genuine demand unheard. I choose the third, because Article 48A asks the State to protect the environment, which matches the spirit of Rit and Rin. Now I would refuse with written reasons and propose other land. Long term I would keep a public record of water bodies.
Practice questionabout 50 words
(5 marks, 50 words) How do the ideas of Rit, Rin and duty apply here?
Model answer
Rit: nature's order, which should not be broken; Rin: what we owe to forebears and the unborn; duty: the officer's post is the way to repay that debt.
Practice questionabout 50 words
(5 marks, 50 words) Suggest long-term measures to protect water bodies.
Model answer
A public register of water bodies, demarcated catchments, a community johad committee, regular inspection.