10% water cut for city to continue: ajit pawar

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, soon after taking over charge as guardian minister of Pune, on Saturday made it clear that the current 10% water cut would continue as the planning for the

available water was done for the period till the onset of the next monsoon in 2013. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, soon after taking over charge as guardian minister of Pune, on Saturday

made it clear that the current 10% water cut would continue as the planning for the available water was done for the period till the onset of the next monsoon in 2013. He was speaking at the

district planning development committee (DPDC) while intervening in a discussion raised by Congress MLA Vinayak Nimhan. Nimhan questioned the rationale behind continuing with the water cut

despite the fact that the four dams supplying water to Pune had adequate storage. He pointed out that additional fringe villages were being merged with PMC limits without providing for

drinking water. The deputy chief minister said that last year the total water storage in the four dams of Khadakwasla, Panshet, Varasgaon and Temghar was 21.82 thousand million cubic (TMC)

ft; this year it is 21.74 TMC ft. He said that last year, Pune city was provided with 13 TMC of water without taking rural areas of the district into account. He said elected representatives

should not create rural versus urban kind of conflict over the issue of water supply. Pawar asked the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to take up projects for providing water to Pune from

Bhama Askhed dam. He said if the PMC completes the sewerage treatment plant (STP), it can provide additional 6.5 TMC ft water to Pune as the treated water could be released in the canal.

Municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak said that for the Bhama Askhed dam water project, the PMC is trying to get sanction for 2.6 TMC ft water instead of the sanctioned 1.3 TMC ft water. He

said the PMC is trying to get money from the state government for expenditure on irrigation re-establishment cost which is Rs1 lakh per hectare. He said the PMC can bear the capital cost of

the project.