With Governor Kamla Beniwal giving her approval, the decks have been cleared for a controversial Gujarat law that makes possession of licence mandatory for sinking a tubewell, borewell or artesian well on any agricultural land and also has a provision for imprisonment.

The BJP government steamrollered the Gujarat Irrigation and Drainage Bill 2013 in the Assembly on February 27, despite stiff resistance from the Congress and Keshubhai Patel’s Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP).