Journalism of Courage
Resident’s of Vakil Nagar,Erandwane,are contemplating a massive agitation outside the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) office after water entered around 12 flats on the first floor of the society on Monday night.
We have faced no such problem since1992 when the society came up,however,the society witnessed flooding for the third time on Monday during this years monsoon. It is because of encroachments on the nullah behind the society, said advocate Umesh Gopale,one of the residents.
Mondays downpour brought down the societys compound wall and water levels started rising rapidly. I was in Kolhapur for office work when I got to know that water has entered my 2BHK flat on the first floor. This is the third time after June 14 and September 29 this year that water has entered my flat, said Suryakant Shinde,an engineer. He said his daily works had been disturbed since September 29 and the family was just about returning to normal when Mondays downpour brought the situation back to square one. Everything in the house furniture,electronic appliances,clothe- is damaged. We spent the entire night trying to remove the water and clean the flat, said Shinde,who has two school-going children.
The 192-flat society mostly housed lawyers. Residents said corporators and PMC commissioner had visited their society in June when it flooded for the first time. They said that they needed to check whether construction permission was given to the encroachments in the area. No corrective measures were implemented, Gopale said.
On Monday too,corporator Medha Kulkarni and former corporator Shiva Mantri visited the site. We have given instructions to demolish a wall near the nullah. Work of this began on Tuesday morning said Kulkarni. She added that two major encroachments were found on the nullah. The nearby Himali Society has blocked the nullah and laid a pipe to let the seeping water pass. The new wall is being constructed by Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital on the nullah. We will see if PMC has given permission for these two constructions and on what basis, Kulkarni said.
