Despite Pune’s dams being filled to the brim owing to excess rain this monsoon, residents in Pimpri-Chinchwad township are facing the prospect of water rationing.
While bountiful showers have led to the Pavana dam — the township’s potable water lifeline — being full at the moment, residents suffer from water shortage owing to civic apathy, mismanagement of resources and corruption by civic officials and local politicians.
As residents from scores of housing societies in the industrial township stage protests over the alternate water supply for the past fortnight, politicians and Pimpri-Chinchwad civic officials are engaging in regular verbal volleys over the issue.
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Shrirang Barne, Shiv Sena MP from Maval, has demanded the transfer of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) Commissioner, Shravan Hardikar, for failing to ensure proper water supply. “I have recently met with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and apprised him of the water woes of the residents of Pimpri-Chinchwad. I have urged for Mr. Hardikar’s transfer as the civic administration led by him has made the life of residents miserable,” he said.
In response, the PCMC authorities have squarely put the blame on illicit water connections and leakages. They claimed that corrective steps are being taken in the form of replacing old pipelines and doing away with the illegal connections.
“The civic body can lift around 450 million of litres per day from the Pavana dam to supply water to the three Assembly segments of Pimpri, Chinchwad and Bhosari. Yet, owing to widespread corruption of civic authorities and PCMC corporators, residents have been facing serious water problems, with women among the most affected,” said noted activist and former PCMC corporator Maruti Bhapkar.
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‘Tanker mafia’
Mr. Bhapkar, a former founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party in Pune district, said the all-pervasive ‘tanker mafia’ was robbing citizens in residential societies by charging steep prices even in the time of plentiful water. He said it was being run by civic officials, their relatives and the kin of corporators.
Citizens are torn between the feuding of authorities and politicians. “We have approached the civic authorities and the local MLAs, but to no avail. Each party blames the other, while the ‘tanker mafia’ flourishes. In several societies, we had even staged a ‘no water, no vote’ campaign before the parliamentary polls. Yet, no one pays heed to our dire situation,” said Amar Deshmukh, a resident of Wakad.
Mr. Deshmukh said the angry residents had even sought legal recourse to find a permanent solution to their water woes. He said, “It is difficult to believe that such a grave water supply issue persists in the PCMC area when the 8.51 thousand million cubic feet Pavana dam is filled to capacity because Maval taluk has witnessed unprecedented rain this time.”
Mr. Deshmukh said while thousands of residents of Wakad, Pimpri, Chinchwad, Ravet and Hinjewadi are suffering terribly owing to this artificial water scarcity, those in Wakad are the worst-hit, having to shell out anything between ₹3 and ₹5 lakh per month to meet their water needs.
He said, “This is daylight robbery of the taxpayer’s hard-earned money. This time, water was the central problem in both the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections. Yet, authorities and politicians are least bothered to deal with it.”