E-Paper
Committee to seek CSR funds to desilt, clean 142 river stretches in Maha
The committee is helmed by the district collector and has as its member-secretary the executive engineer of the water resources department
PUNE: A 12-member committee appointed by the state government recently on July 25 will seek corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for desilting and cleaning up of 142 river stretches in Maharashtra with a total length of 1,608 km identified by the water resources department as flood-prone. Of the 142 river stretches in the state, 13 are in Pune district which include: Mutha river, Mula-Mutha river, Mula river, Bhima, Ramnadi, Urwade nullah, Sudha, Kasarsai nullah, Ghod river (Mina included), Kukadi river (Mandavi included), and Pushpavati.
The committee is helmed by the district collector and has as its member-secretary the executive engineer of the water resources department. The other members include representatives of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Groundwater Survey and Development Authority, Deputy Conservator of Forests, two representatives from a non-government organisation (NGO), and a few others.
Apart from fieldwork such as site visits, preparation of reports, and execution of desilting, the committee will actively seek CSR funds from private companies for the said work. This could be in different forms such as purchasing necessary equipment or providing manpower for the cleaning work, an official said. Nitin Shinde, sub-regional officer, MPCB Pune, said that the CSR funds will be useful in cleaning up the river stretches.
After massive floods in the Krishna-Bhima River basin in 2019, the state government had appointed a committee to study the flood situation in the state. The committee, under the chairmanship of Nandkumar Wadnere, former principal secretary of the water resources department, had submitted a report in 2021. The committee had identified 142 river stretches with a total length of 1,608 km in Maharashtra as flood-prone. It had also recommended undertaking cleaning of rivers and removing of encroachments based on the flood-prone river stretches. The state had accepted the recommendations and decided to work accordingly.
