'Release funds for Wadi MC for STPs'
Nagpur: After Wadi Municipal Council (MC) expressed its inability to pay 1% of Rs62 crore funds meant for establishing two sewage treatment plants (STPs) at Wadi and Daulameti, the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the government to release funds for it within 10 weeks.
A division bench comprising justices Ravi Deshpande and Vinay Joshi asked the council to prepare a comprehensive proposal and send it to the state Urban Development Department (UDD) within two weeks.
The UDD was further told to process the proposal and sanction funds within eight weeks. The judges made it clear that the model code of conduct wouldn’t be applicable to the process.
The court was hearing a suo motu PIL (No 23/2019) based on TOI’s report on scores of dead fishes in Ambazari Lake due to pollution. TOI has been following the issue since 2014 and had reported that most of the time, the fishes die during summer, but it was also reported in winters.
It reported on how the highly polluted water from the lake was being used for drinking by over 7,000 families in Ordnance Factory Ambajhari, Wadi MC and Dawlameti Gram Panchayat. The untreated waste from Wadi was being released in the lake, thus adding to its pollution.
The court was hearing a suo motu PIL (No 23/2019) based on TOI’s report on scores of dead fishes in Ambazari Lake due to pollution. TOI has been following the issue since 2014 and had reported that most of the time, the fishes die during summer, but it was also reported in winters.
It reported on how the highly polluted water from the lake was being used for drinking by over 7,000 families in Ordnance Factory Ambajhari, Wadi MC and Dawlameti Gram Panchayat. The untreated waste from Wadi was being released in the lake, thus adding to its pollution.
Earlier, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) counsel Ravi Sanyal informed that in 2017, the Wadi Council deposited Rs17 lakh towards its share of about Rs42 lakh, but since then it failed to give more funds citing financial crunch.
He informed that turbidity and bacterial contamination was observed in the lake to a large extent, while biochemical oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand were observed to be above drinking water level standards, mainly due to incoming water streams carrying contaminated water.
The presence of indicator bacteria — faecal coliforms — in the lake indicates that water contamination is due to sewage. An increase in the phytoplankton population and density has exceeded to a bigger level, thus reducing the oxygen percentage in the water body.
In the last hearing, the HC had directed Wadi Council to prevent flowing of sewage into the water body while Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) was told to file a report on steps taken to clean the historic lake and saving its marine life.
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