E-Paper
Wai Municipal Council fined ₹25 lakh for illegal construction on Krishna riverbed
The road has been constructed in a prohibited area, which is within the blue line, of the Krishna river.
On July, 30 the Wai Municipal Council has been fined ₹25 lakh by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) towards environmental compensation for concretising a road. The road has been constructed in a prohibited area, which is within the blue line, of the Krishna river.
The tribunal has ordered the council to deposit the said amount to Central Pollution Control Board within a period of 15 days.
In 2018, Jeevitnadi, a Pune-based non-govermental organisation (NGO) and river activist Narendra Chugh from Jal Biradari, a Pune-based NGO, had filed a case in the National Green Tribunal, against the construction of a road, on the Krishna riverbed by the Wai Municipal Council.
Makrand Shende, architect and environmentalist from Pune said, “In May 2018, Wai Municipal Council began constructing a ghat in the riverbed despite protests. The Wai council, in 2015, proposed concretisation of 5,600 square feet area on the Krishna river bed. However, the work stopped due to environmental reasons.”
According to Shende, the proposed concretisation raised questions related to risk of flooding in Wai, loss of ecology and biodiversity and ground water recharge.
“This concretisation tender was floated in April 2018 and was strongly opposed by local group ‘Samooh’ and Pune-based NGO’s like Jeevitnadi, Jal Biradari,” said Shende who had also initiated a protest against the construction on the river bed.
After several meetings with authorities and corporators, the Wai Municipal Council went ahead with the construction. It was only after the intervention of the irrigation minister Girish Mahajan, that stop-work notices were sent on June 5, 2018 to remove stop work and remove the dumped debris.
The National Green Tribunal, western zone bench presided over by Justice SP Wangdi and expert member Dr. Nagin Nanda directed the irrigation department to conduct a site inspection of the work on the Krishna riverbed. The authorities in their reported submitted that the a stone paved ghat was constructed on the northern bank of the Krishna riverbed and the southern side remained filthy, according to Shende.
“This first hearing of the case was held on July 19, 2018 and on July 30, 2019 the tribunal has fined the Wai Municipal Council. The tribunal noted that the construction violates their order, wherein, no construction whether permeant or temporary cannot be done within 50m from blue line of rivers in Maharashtra. ” said Shende.
The tribunal has also asked a compliance report to be submitted by the Wai Municipal Council within a month after they pay the fine.
