This is an archive article published on August 30, 2018
Maharashtra government: Jalyukt Shivar plan will help avert Kerala-like tragedy in state
State Additional Chief Secretary Pravin Pardeshi said the scheme had “mobilised people’s efforts, voluntary contributions, and government and corporate convergence”.
State Additional Chief Secretary Pravin Pardeshi (File)
The Jalyukt Shivar scheme launched by the Devendra Fadnavis-led government will help Maharashtra avoid the kind of tragedy Kerala experienced recently, State Additional Chief Secretary Pravin Pardeshi has said. Kerala is struggling in the aftermath of the worst floods in almost a century, triggered by incessant rains. The deluge claimed hundreds of lives and left lakhs homeless.
Pardeshi, who played a crucial role in coordinating relief and rehabilitation measures in Kerala, on behalf of the Maharashtra government, told The Indian Express, “In the last many years, the risk of floods has built up in Maharashtra, because of silting of streams and small rivers, and because garbage and waste is dumped in natural water bodies near towns and villages”. However, he pointed out that the massive Jalyukt Shivar plan, launched by the state government, had led to the desilting and rejuvenation of rivers and streams, so that rainwater could flow naturally, without causing flood damage in village and towns.
The scheme had “mobilised people’s efforts, voluntary contributions, and government and corporate convergence”, said Pardeshi, adding, “the Jalyukt Shivar is a boon for Maharashtra. It will help avert a Kerala-like situation”.
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Asked whether the tragedy in Kerala was a natural calamity or man-made factors were also behind it, Pardeshi said, “I have worked as head of regional offices on the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) in Geneva from 2002 to 2007. UNISDR say there are no natural disasters, there are only natural hazards; natural hazards like heavy rain or an earthquake become a disaster when man makes risky constructions in flood hazard or earthquake zones, without factoring in risk mitigation measures, like regional planning that leaves rivers and natural drainages ecologically conserved”.
Explaining how Maharashtra was well-prepared to deal with a Kerala-like situation, Pardeshi said, “The Maharashtra government, under the chief minister, undertook and completed the task of preparing and statutorily mandating regional land use plans for all 36 districts of Maharashtra, and pending land use plans of over 100 towns and cities were also approved”.
“These regional plans demarcate rivers and natural drainages and mark green zones around rivers. If these demarcations are followed while giving building permissions, it will ensure that flood risk is minimised,” he said.
Pardeshi cited the example of the development plan for Pune, in which natural drainages, as well as the buffer green zone along the banks of the natural drainages, were marked. “Similarly, construction activities have to factor in flood mitigation engineering…” he said.
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The Maharashtra government has pledged Rs 20 crore in assistance to Kerala, said Pardeshi. The state government has also mobilised lakhs of food packets, and had sent 100 doctors with medicines, who worked in relief camps in Kerala for two weeks.
Pardeshi said while he was in Kerala, he “coordinated efforts of many voluntary organisations, corporates and government initiatives, in a demand driven manner. My batchmate in Kerala, Rajiv Sadanandan, was able to articulate exact requirements in the health sector in terms of needing medical teams consisting of one doctor, one nurse, one assistant. We could airlift this team, led by our Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan, immediately via an Air Force plane.”
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.
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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.
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State Additional Chief Secretary Pravin Pardeshi (File)
