Bombay High Court stays work on Devnadi course

The High Court on Thursday directed the Pune Municipal Corporation to cease concretisation work at the central course of the Devnadi in Baner. Devnadi is a tributary of the Mula.

The High Court on Thursday directed the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to cease concretisation work at the central course of the Devnadi in Baner. Devnadi is a tributary of the Mula.

The bench,comprising chief justice Mohit Shah and justice H L Gokhale,directed the PMC to approach the Ministry of Environment and Forests to conduct a full-scale environmental impact analysis of all stormwater drain improvement projects in the city before undertaking any further work. The citizens under the Baner area Sabha and Jal Biradari had been opposing the PMCs plans to concretise the central course of the Devnadi as part of its Rs 400-crore storm water drain improvement project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

This has been our success and we are waiting for the final papers from the lawyers. We will follow it by a series of meetings and we will take up issues concerning encroachment on all rivers in the city, said activist Vinod Bodhankar,president of Pune district Jal Biradari. When a river becomes a nullah,there is corruption and mismanagement while when a nullah is turned into a river there is a fight against corruption, he added. The Devnadi originates from Pashan lake and flows into the Mutha river near Kothrud. It flows across Kothrud,Bavdhan and Baner.

While Anupam Saraph from Baner area Sabha said the main objection was to the concretisation work as Baner witnessed tremendous havoc during flash floods. Sunil Joshi from Jal Biradri said,Punes situation on the natural resources is only getting worse. During the recent visit of Magsaysay award winner and noted water conservationist Rajendra Singh,citizens of Baner had stopped work of concretisation along the Devnadi.

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