E-Paper
Alignment of Ambil odha: SC upholds HC stay order, asks PMC to stop work
The Bombay HC on December 23, 2021, had directed the PMC to maintain the status quo on the work of altering the alignment of the stream
The Supreme Court (SC), on Thursday, upheld the stay order issued by the Bombay High Court (HC) on December 23, 2021, regarding the work of straightening the alignment of Ambil odha (stream) near Dandekar bridge.
Petitioners Kishor Kamble and Meghraj Nimbalkar had raised concerns about the work undertaken by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to alter the alignment of the stream.
The Bombay HC had directed the PMC to maintain the status quo on the work of altering the alignment of the stream. The bench comprising Justices AA Sayed and Abhay Ahuja, after hearing the counsel for the parties in their order dated December 23, 2021, had stated, “We note that in the report of PriMove Infrastructure Development Consultants Pvt Ltd, dated April 2020, it is interalia recommended to avoid diverting natural nallahs or streams.”
Petitioner’s counsel Advocate Asim Sarode, Advocate Abhay Anturkar and Advocate Justice George Thomas who appeared before the SC bench of judges Ajay Rastogi and BV Nagarathna told the bench that the stay order issued by the HC on December 23, 2021, was quashed on May 6, 2022, which led to the digging of a non-existent culvert with several excavators. While the irrigation department has not given permission to dig such a new nullah, the corporation is causing permanent damage to the environment by enforcing the law, the counsels informed the court.
The petitioners had alleged that the PMC does not have any powers to alter the alignment of the stream but it was doing so in the interest of real estate developers. The PMC, along with Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), had taken up the demolition of huts alongside the stream and levelling of the land by changing the alignment of the stream in 2021. There were protests from the residents and the work had to be stopped after government intervention.
Ambil Odha witnessed flooding in 2019 which claimed lives of 26 people and damaged ₹200 crores worth of goods and property.
