Bhama Askhed dam work resumes under police cover

PUNE: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) restarted the work of laying a water pipeline near Bhama Askhed dam with the help of police protection on Monday. The project

PUNE: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) restarted the work of laying a water pipeline near Bhama Askhed dam with the help of police protection on Monday. The project was halted by farmers’ protests several times, including on Monday.

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Pravin Gedam, PMC officer incharge of the project, said, “PMC resumed water pipeline laying work on Monday even as farmers staged protest. Sub-divisional officer and police immediately reached the spot and handled the situation. The farmers’ issues are related to the district collector and state government, not PMC. We resumed work on Monday evening and continued on Tuesday under police cover.”

As soon as PMC restarted the work, farmers under the leadership of Satyavan Navale and Devidas Bandal staged protest on Monday. Sub- divisional officer Sanjay Teli negotiated with farmers and requested them to resume the work. Telang asked farmers that both the state government and PMC would keep their promise and provide necessary compensation.

Gedam said, “We had planned to complete the work before monsoon, but now it will be delayed due to coronavirus lockdown. Some pumping related works near the dam is yet to be carried out as 80 per cent project is completed.”

According to the official, the project has entered the last stage and only a few kilometres of the 42-km pipeline work remains to connect the dam and city’s water network.

The Bhama Askhed water pipeline project was designed to meet the drinking water needs of 14.5 lakh residents of eastern Pune. However, agitations by farmers and issues of rightful compensation for land acquired is causing a hindrance to the project.

The project work was stopped several times since 2015 by a local political leaders and farmers.