GURUGRAM: The hydrology department in Gurugram is reeling under acute staff shortage even as the city’s groundwater table continues to deplete at an alarming rate with each passing year. There has been no recruitment in the department in the past 10 years.TOI has time and again raised concerns about the city’s depleting water table and illegal extraction of groundwater, but no concrete action has been taken by the government on this front yet.We had last month carried a report highlighting that nearly 82% decline has been reported in the city’s water table in the past decade.Despite the sanctioned posts at the hydrology department being 37, there are currently only four staff members, including the hydrologist (head of the department) and three class III staff — a personal assistant, a draftsman and a clerk. While the personal assistant assists the hydrologist in addressing complaints and compiling reports, the draftsman helps in preparing water-level maps.Shockingly, the hydrologist single-handedly oversees violations and mapping of groundwater not only in Gurugram, but also in five other areas — Faridabad (area of Municipal Corporation of Faridabad and Ballabhgarh), Mewat, Palwal, Rewari and Narnaul.The staff crunch is so acute that the water-testing laboratory apparatus that was allotted to the department last year couldn’t be used even once due to the shortage of technical employees.The hydrology department is responsible for the annual monitoring of groundwater (pre-monsoon and post monsoon); regulation of water tankers and borewells; addressing all the complaints relating to illegal water tankers and borewells etc.When contacted, Vijender Singh Lamba, district hydrologist, told TOI, “Gurugram is a very critical district, when it comes to groundwater extraction. While the entire district is in dark zone (as per the Central Ground Water Board), some blocks in Faridabad, Mewat, Rewari and Narnual have also been marked under the dark zone by CGWB.”“We have been facing staff shortage as most officials have retired in the past 10 years and no new recruitment has taken place. We have been doing our best to keep a check over any violation,” he added.A senior hydrologist, who retired from the post a few years ago, said “it is not something new in Gurugram”. “It seems that protection of groundwater is not on the agenda of the state government. The department has been ignored for several years. To my knowledge, there has been staff strength of four people for the past six years,” he said, requesting anonymity.Activists, on the other hand, blamed the department for not taking any steps to curb illegal groundwater extraction and tanker mafia.“For the past decade, I have been filing RTI applications in order to get details of offenders nabbed by the department. While tanker mafia is operating openly in the city, many construction projects are using groundwater from illegal borewells. There is no check on the violations,” said Aseem Takyar, a city-based RTI activist.Despite repeated attempts by TOI, deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh could not be contacted.

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