KCB issues notice to Hotel Sagar

PUNE, Sept 22: Forget sunshine and fresh air! For the residents of 76, New Bazaar, Khadki, each day brings with it despair and little hope of reprieve from the black smoke and poisonous fumes of the diesel bhatti that is placed right in the middle of an old-style wada. This has gone on for years now as the proprietors of Hotel Sagar in New Bazaar have allegedly flouted the rule book using the centre of the wada for hotel purposes.

One of the aggrieved residents, Srinivasan Achary, recently submitted a memorandum to the General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC-in-C), Southern Command urging him to look into the matter. Achary said that the owner of Hotel Sagar had installed a separate kitchen, apart from the one inside the hotel, in one of the residential premises of the wada. The additional kitchen is equipped with exhaust fans, a tiny chimney, diesel bhatti stoves and a gas cylinder.

“Many residents are suffering from cough, suffocation, giddiness and vomiting due to the smoke and the smell of oil,” he alleged. Moreover, the noise and air pollution caused by the exhaust fans has caused many families to suffer from hypertension, irritability, headache and problems in hearing, he added.

When contacted, cantonment executive officer Ajay Kumar clarified that the cantonment board has issued a notice to the owner of Hotel Sagar to remove the make-shift kitchen within seven days.