The rules of Ground Water Surveys and Development Agency do not allow construction work around the natural spring and the PMC should enforce it, said the environmentalists.
Environmentalists have asked the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to declare the natural spring in Bavdhan as reserved land in the development plan of the city, failing which they will approach the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Natural springs are groundwater sources where pressurised water emerges from the ground in a steady flow.
Shailendra Patel of Jal Devta Seva Abhiyan, Sunil Joshi of Samagra Nadi Parivar, Nirajan Upasani of Jeevit Nadi, Virendra Chitrav of Ram Nadi Restoration Abhiyan, Sachin Punekar of BioSphere, Deepak Shrote and Pushkar Kulkarni of Vasundhara Swachata Abhiyan, and Vaishali Patkar of Bhujal Abhiyan have written a letter to the municipal commissioner to immediately take the necessary action for declaring the natural spring in Bavdhan as reservation land.
The Maharashtra Water Resource Regulatory Authority (MWRRA), Ground Water Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA) and SDO Maval-Mulshi have already declared the natural spring in Bavdhan as a water resource that needs to be conserved. The three agencies have issued directions to the PMC saying it is the prime responsibility of the local civic body to conserve it, said the environmentalists.
“The municipal commissioner, despite orders from the government agencies, has not taken action for declaring the natural spring as a water resource and steps for its conservation by reserving the land in the development plan. He has committed contempt of the three government offices by delaying action on the directions,” said Patel.
He said that the MWRRA had constituted a committee for conservation of the natural spring in Bavdhan and the municipal commissioner is one of its members. It was decided that the municipal commissioner should ensure there is no construction work allowed in the vicinity of natural spring to conserve it and the committee had directed the PMC to make a time-bound action plan for it.
If the natural spring existence is lost then it would be the responsibility of the committee and in turn of the PMC. The GSDA rules do not allow construction work around the natural spring and the PMC should enforce it. The environmentalists have been frequently communicating with PMC on conservation of the natural spring and the Ramnadi river but the civic administration has not been responding to it, they said.
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