BJP MLA seeks 16 TMC ft water quota for the city

BJP MLA seeks 16 TMC ft water quota for the city

PUNE: To raise the quota of drinking water alloted to the city, the civic body is still awaiting information ascertaining the rise in city’s population. Meanwhile, BJP’s Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Medha Kulkarni has demanded to sanction 16 Thousand Million Cubic feet (TMC) to Pune city against the background of the increase in the population.

Kulkarni met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Cabinet Water Resource Minister Girish Mahajan and demanded that the water quota of 11.50 TMC be raised to 16 TMC, based on the rapid increase in the population. 

As the winter session of the State assembly has begun, Kulkarni, an MLA of Kothrud constituency, has made this demand for additional water quota for the city. Kulkarni has also raised a starred question on city’s water problems in the session.

While speaking to Sakal Times, Kulkarni said, “In 1997, the Irrigation Department and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) signed an agreement of supply of 11.50 TMC water quota for the city. At that time, the population was 22 lakh. Now, it has reached 55 lakh. Due to this increase, the city needs 16 TMC water. The Irrigation Department is claiming that the city only needs 8.19 TMC water on the basis of 2011 census. The civic body has submitted a proposal to increase water quota from 11.50 TMC to 16 TMC in 2012. However, it has not been sanctioned yet.”

“The city is receiving less water and there is a huge water scarcity situation in the city. The State government should increase the water quota,” she added. 

On the other hand, the State Water Resource Ministry reduced Pune city’s water quota from 1,350 Million Litre per day (MLD) to 1150 MLD following water scarcity in rural parts of Pune due to insufficient rainfall. Since the end of October (before Diwali), the civic body started only one-time supply for five hours at high pressure in the city. 

Municipal Commissioner Saurabh Rao had earlier announced that the civic body will demand additional water quota from Khadakwasla Irrigation Division on the basis of the increased population of the city. He had said that the information ascertaining the rise in city’s population will be collected from the district administration. However, the civic body is yet to collect data related to the rise in the city’s population. Due to this, the PMC has not yet sent the letter to Khadakwasla Irrigation Division demanding revision of quota assigned to the civic body. 

VG Kulkarni, Chief Superintendent Engineer of the Water Supply Department of PMC, said, “We do not have information about city’s latest population figures. We have made a correspondence with State officials  to get this information.”

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