After four years, govt to push stalled Maval pipeline project

NCP-led PCMC leaves it to BJP; Bapat says will soon hold meeting to address the issue.

Almost four years after the work on Maval pipeline came to a grinding halt following protest by farmers, the BJP-led state government has shown keenness on resolving the issue which has led to huge cost escalation in the approximately Rs 400-crore project.

Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Rajeev Jadhav said on Tuesday that they had been making efforts to start the project, but could not succeed. “Now, we have urged the district guardian minister Girish Bapat to convene a meeting of all stakeholders to resolve the issue,”
he said.

Bapat, who is recovering from a surgery, said he will convene a meeting of agitating farmers, PCMC (Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation) officials and other stakeholders in 10 days. “We will make effort to resolve the issue by addressing the problems of the farmers,” he said. The state government has apparently directed Bapat to discuss the matter with the farmers and find a solution to the problem.

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Leaders of ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in PCMC said if the BJP takes initiative, the issue could be resolved as the saffron party had been supporting the farmers agitation.

“Since there is a BJP-led government in the state, party MLA in Maval and an MP who belongs its alliance partner, the issue could be resolved easily,” said a senior NCP leader. PCMC officials too believe likewise.

Meanwhile, the closed pipeline project that was to provide clean water to 18 lakh population of Pimpri-Chinchwad has witnessed cost escalation in the past four years. Officials said the cost escalates by 10 per cent every year, besides there are other expenses which are not in the tender process. “The project cost will go beyond Rs 600 crore,” said an official. PCMC project head Ramdas Tambe said the civic body has spent Rs 142 crore in laying the four-km line so far.

On August 9, 2011, three Maval farmers had been killed in police firing and several injured after their agitation against the pipeline project turned violent. The farmers were protesting against the project from Pavana dam to Pimpri-Chinchwad – a distance of around 50 km – which was being laid by the corporation. The farmers feared that they would be deprived of their share of water once the pipeline is laid.

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After the firing incident, the project came to a halt. PCMC had managed to lay only four-km pipeline when violent agitation stalled the work. Even as the government ordered a probe, the farmers approached the Maharashtra Resources Regulatory Authority to address their grievance. Last year, the authority had ruled that PCMC could lift water directly from Pavana dam for eight months in a year and for four monsoon months it should lift water from Pavana river in its jurisdiction.

“The farmers have not accepted the ruling of regulatory authority and have approached the Bombay High Court,” said Tambe.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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