Punawale residents win 15-yr-old battle with PCMC as state govt scraps garbage depot plan

”Punawale was merged with Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation in 1998. Subsequently, a development plan was also prepared. As the city grows, it faces the problem of solid waste management…PCMC had zeroed on a plot spread over 26 hectares to set up the garbage depot. However, as Punawale has expanded rapidly in the last few years, it will be impossible to go ahead with the project in the area. We will look for an alternative land,” industry minister Uday Samant told the State Assembly on Monday.

The minister’s response came after Chinchwad MLA Ashwini Jagtap strongly opposed PCMC’s move to set up a garbage depot in the Punawale area where residents, who first protested against the plan over a decade ago, had intensified their agitation in the last few months.

On Monday, the first-time BJP MLA raised the issue in the State Assembly by calling an Attention Motion, seeking to scrap the plan to set up a depot in Punawale.

Jagtap said the PCMC reserved the 26-hectare land for a garbage depot in 2008. “The Punawale area has grown rapidly in the last 15 years. Several residential societies, educational institutes, offices and shops have come up in the area. Since the Hinjewadi IT park is nearby, several people from faraway places have settled here. If a garbage depot is set up, hundreds of trees on the forest land will be chopped off, which will adversely affect the environment,” she said.

“Since Punawale is located in a hilly area, water from the top will flow down to the low-lying area and the river, causing pollution,” said the MLA.

Jagtap said while giving in-principle approval to the garbage depot plan, the Centre had asked the civic body to submit a report regarding rules and regulations that will be followed. “The report had to be submitted within five years. However, the civic body failed to submit the report which as per the central government guidelines and hence, the project stood cancelled,” she said.

The MLA said in February this year, the PCMC urged the forest department to reopen the project. In return, it offered 22 hectares of land, worth Rs 9 crore, in the Chandrapur area, to the forest department.

“When I wrote to both officials of both the state and and central government, I was told that the project has not been reopened. Even state forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has in a written reply told me that the Centre did not approve the Punawale project and his department will not do anything which affects the local residents,” she said.

Jagtap said, ”I want to know why the PCMC decided to go ahead with the project, despite it getting cancelled for not adhering to Central government’s norms…I want to know why PCMC sought to purchase private land in Chandrapur by violating rules…I want to know whether the government plans to set up an eco park at the same land in Punawale. Will the state government launch an investigation into the attempt to sell the land by civic officials?”

Rejecting the demand for a probe, the Minister said, ”The forest department has rejected the land which was offered to it in Chandrapur. There was no illegality in this deal and therefore, no probe will be launched.”

Reacting to the state government’s decision, PCMC commissioner Shekhar Singh said, ”We will adhere to the government directives and will look for alternative land to set up the garbage depot.”

A senior PCMC official said, ”Pimpri-Chinchwad does not have any other land as big as this one (in Punawale). The Moshi garbage depot has no space…The garbage depot proposed in Punawale was meant to take care of the future needs of the city. Now, we will have a problem in managing garbage if don’t mind an alternative land for the garbage depot.”

Meanwhile, the residents of Punawale welcomed the government’s decision. Navnath Dhawale, a resident of Punawale, who launched the ‘Me Punawalekar’ campaign against the garbage depot plan, said, “It’s a big moment for us. It’s a victory of all the residents of Punawale. We fought hard for 15 years…We feared that the environment in Punawale would be severely affected once the garbage depot came up. We want to express our gratitude to MLA Ashwini Jagtap for taking up our cause in the State Assembly and getting the project scrapped.”
“We have been opposing the plan since 2008. We had also filed a PIL against it in the Bombay High Court in 2010. However, we withdrew it as the PCMC had then said it was just a proposal and that they had not made any progress on that front. The court had then told us to withdraw the PIL and return when the PCMC moves ahead with the plan,” said Dhawale.

He added that the PCMC chief announced six months ago that the civic body would set up the garbage depot in Punawale. “After his statement, we revived our campaign and took out a bike rally, in which 5,000 residents participated. We also held a silent march. MLA Ashwini Jagtap came for the protests and extended her support.”

“Even as we were holding protests locally, we suggested the MLA to take up the issue in the State Assembly,” said Dhawale.
Punawale has a population of 85,000 to 1 lakh residents and around 90 residential societies, each with 500 or more flats.