Claim to water is at core of pipeline protests…..MANOJ MORE , Nisha Nambiar
Source is a dam that farmers bank on, target of supply is a growing township
At the root of the agitation that led to police firing on farmers in Pune district on Tuesday, leaving three of the agitators dead, is a pipeline project that aims to enhance water supply to Pimpri-Chinchwad but which, the farmers fear, will rob them of water they use for irrigation.
The twin pipelines are meant to be only six feet wide and underground, leaving the land above tillable as ever, say municipal authorities. What is bothering villagers along the 35-km route, most of it along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, is that the water in the pipes, 525 million litres every day, will come from the Pavana Dam. They irrigate their fields with water released by the dam into the Pavana river.
Their protests are being spearheaded by the Bharatiya Kisan Manch and backed by the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Maval, the region under which the rural part of the project falls, is represented by the BJP in both the Assembly (Bala Begde) and Lok Sabha (Gajanand Babar). The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, which is undertaking the Rs-400-crore project under the JNNURM, is ruled by the NCP, which has come under fire from its Congress allies too.
Less than 5 km of the pipeline has been constructed, all within Pimpri-Chinchwad. On paper, land for the rural stretch has already been acquired from 350 farmers and compensation reportedly deposited, though physical possession has not yet been taken. The total area is only 15 hectares, scaled down from the initially targeted 26 hectares, but at stake is an alleged 15,000 acres where farming depends on the water now being “diverted”, says MLA Begde.
The compensation package decided on is Rs 6.5 crore of which Rs 5 crore has been deposited in the government treasury, say corporation officials. Municipal Commissioner Asheesh Sharma says fears of a water shortage are unfounded anyway, citing a Bombay High Court ruling last year that dismissed a petition from farmers.
Numbers are cited by those against the project too. Begde says the dam releases water at 1,400 cusecs everyday and predict sthe project will cut the discharge down to 400 cusecs. Kisan Manch secretary Balasaheb Pingle says the dam has a capacity of 10 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) and needs to hold 2.5 TMC but will fall short once it sends the corporation 6.5 TMC a year. The corporation’s yearly allocation is 5.26 TMC but the pipeline will help raise it to 6.55 TMC by 2023. Pingle alleges also that only polluted water will be left for villagers.
The corporation has announced it will construct at least two weirs on the river to address the alleged shortage. “Whatever the cost for construction, the corporation will pay,” said mayor Yogesh Behl.
He said Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had promised smaller dams for farmers. It was Pawar who had inaugurated the project in 2008. Several farmers had met him the same day with various problems, the most common one being that farmers’ land in Maval taluka was being repeatedly acquired by the state government for one project or the other.
Acquisition notices for this project had been served that very day and the process completed last month. Farmers kept protesting all along and the flashpoint on Tuesday arrived after a meeting among various authorities the previous day had decided to go ahead.
The corporation cites a growing need for clean water, which the pipelines would ensure directly from the dam. Civic authorities point out that industries in Maval are threatening the Pavana river too with pollution, hence the direct line. As of now, raw water is lifted from Ravet village in the municipal limits which is sent to a filtration plant at Sector 23 in Nigdi.