Communication gap, no coordination between govt depts led to floods: Union Minister Murlidhar Mohol

Mohol had rushed to the city from Delhi on Thursday evening as floods in Pune city worsened. He visited a few affected areas the same day and and met with flood affected citizens on Sinhagad road, where several housing socities had water gushing into their premises.

After a review of the situation, Mohol and BJP legislators as well as office bearers held a meeting with the official of the concerned department. “The residents living along the Mutha river were not alerted to the possible flood like situation due to the release of water from the dam. It is evident that there was a lack of coordination within the system that includes various government departments. There was clearly a communication gap among various concerned government agencies,” he said.

The release of large quantities of water in the wee hours without citizens being intimated led to chaos and damage.

Mohol said the irrigation department had released more water than it planned leading to floods and that this should not be repeated again.

Mohol said assessments of property damage in affected areas was taken up on priority and compensations will be handed out as per rules.

“Directions have been issued to bring life back to normal in affected areas through cleaning work, restoring drinking water and power supply.”

State BJP minister Chandrakant Patil said, given the unprecedented rain, it was improper to blame the irrigation department for the floods. “The irrigation department alert normally comes through Whatsapp and most of residents residing along the river do not check Whatsapp regularly. The alternative is to announce on radio but who listens to radio regularly nowadays. The irrigation department gave an alert on time so they cannot be blamed,” he said, adding the situation arose due to heavy rains.

“The failure of the civic administration and irrigation department led to the situation. The lack of coordination between PMC and the irrigation department led to a chaotic and serious situation. People’s lives have ben destroyed because of the loss of property. Those ruling the state should keep politics aside and become sensitive towards public issues. The government should declare rehabilitation packages for the affected people,” said NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule.

She added that the administration should complete cleaning affected houses and its surroundings urgently, restore water and power supplies, provide food and clothing, then declare financial assistance packages to affected citizens.

Sule said if residents were intimated earlier by government agencies concerned, the situation would not have been this serious.

City NCP (SP) chief Prashant Jagtap said Mohol put the blame of citizens being inconvenienced on the irrigation department, which is led by Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadanavis. “The BJP Union Minister has pointed out the irrigation department’s failure and indirectly pointed a finger at Fadnavis for his failure to handle floods effectively. So he should resign from the ministry on moral grounds,” he said.