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This is an archive article published on April 16, 2016

In parched Latur, 10,000 litres water a helipad for Maharashtra minister

The Chief Minister’s Office also denied there was any wastage of water. “As per our information, there was no wastage of drinking water. Only untreated water released from filtration tank was used...” said a senior official from the CMO.

Eknath Khadse lands at the helipad in Belkund village on Friday. Express photo Eknath Khadse lands at the helipad in Belkund village
on Friday. Express photo

MAHARASHTRA Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse, who is considered number two in the Devendra Fadnavis government, on Friday landed in a controversy after it emerged that 10,000 litres of water was allegedly used for a make-shift helipad in a village in Latur district where he landed for a review of the drought situation in Marathwada.

Dismissing the protests, Khadse told The Indian Express that untreated water released from a filtration plant located in Belkund village was used for the helipad. “The allegations that drinking water was used for the helipad are baseless and false. The untreated water was released from the filtration plant which had been lying idle for the past six years. This water was used for the helipad,” he said.

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Khadse said the filtration plant, which was part of an old water scheme, was repaired and inaugurated on Friday. “I had sanctioned emergency funds for the project after the collectorate officials told me that if the old water scheme from Lower Terna dam was revived, it would help provide 40 to 50 lakh litres of water to Latur city, which was in such a grip of severe water crisis that the government had been forced to fetch water from far away Miraj by train.”

“I was here to give a surprise to the water-starved residents of Latur, but an unnecessary controversy is being raked up. I can say that from Saturday, Latur city’s water problems will be eased to a large extent.”

The Chief Minister’s Office also denied there was any wastage of water. “As per our information, there was no wastage of drinking water. Only untreated water released from filtration tank was used…” said a senior official from the CMO.

Local activists, however, said the work of setting up of the helipad commenced around 3 pm Thursday and was over by 10 am Friday, hours before Khadse landed. They said several tankers filled with water made the rounds of the helipad.

Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, “The incident shows how insensitive the state government is. The minister had the option of driving by road, but instead he chose to indulge in criminal wastage of water at a time when Marathwada needed every drop of water.”

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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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