A Right to Information (RTI) activist has raised concern over Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) plan to purchase automatic valves to reduce human intervention in the city’s water supply system.
PMC has floated a tender to purchase 306 valves.
Activist Vivek Velankar said, “The civic body had installed an automatic valve near Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) College, but it is not in operation for two years. On raising the issue with the administration, we found that the facility cannot run for lack of three-phase electric supply. Later, power supply was provided but it hardly functioned for one or two months. So, despite having the automatic valve facility, PMC is carrying out the function manually.”
The activist said that while installing automatic water valves is a good move, PMC should not hurry for single purchase of 306 units, but order for 4-5 on pilot basis and see their results before procuring the remaining supply.
“Otherwise, it would be waste of taxpayer money,” Velankar said.