The Times of India 01.10.2010
Rainwater inundates additional civic commissioner's house
PUNE: Rainwater gushed into additional municipal commissioner M S Devnikar's bungalow breaking glass doors and leading to the collapse of the compound wall, following heavy showers on Wednesday night. Incidentally, the bungalow is constructed on amenity space.
Common citizens, as always, faced problems of overflowing drains, water-logged roads, uprooted trees, traffic jams and potholes as the rains came down, but Devnikar, his wife and son, who studies in an engineering college, were left living out a "nightmare" at home.
"Water gushed into the house, breaking the glass doors and, later, the compound wall of the bungalow collapsed. It was a nightmarish experience for us on Wednesday night," Devnikar told TOI. "Clothes, books in my library, my personal documents, stored food stuff, furniture everything was under water, the level of which was around 41 inches in the ground floor rooms. Even my son's educational books and materials were destroyed." The ground floor of the bungalow houses the hall, kitchen and a library. The power also failed and the family spent the night on the first floor, since the water could be drained out only by Thursday morning.
Incidentally, Vivek Velankar of city-based Sajag Nagrik Manch (SNM) had earlier accused the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) of "illegally" allocating a bungalow (Bawdhan Khurd, survey number 20/3/3+8) constructed on an amenity space to Devnikar. Civic activists had also alleged that the construction of this bungalow was done on a natural nullah that had been encroached upon.
In July, Velankar had pointed out that the PMC had not acquired this amenity space and it is illegal to give this bungalow as residential quarter to a civic official. Also, as per the orders of the Karve road ward office, works like construction of a compound wall worth Rs 2.87 lakh were being done by the PMC around this bungalow.
City engineer Prashant Waghmare had then clarified that the person who had constructed the bungalow on the amenity space had handed it over it to the PMC. The former owner had also paid the charge for the demolition, since the construction was done on an amenity space. However, the PMC did not want to demolish it and wanted to use it for public purposes. Devnikar was supposed to be staying here only as a stop-gap arrangement, Waghmare had said.
When asked whether he had demanded another official residence from the PMC, Devnikar said, "I was given this bungalow by the PMC. Even though we faced a similar problem in July, I did not demand another house, since the civic body would have to pay rent for the same."
Meanwhile, Pune municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade said this situation was not limited to the Devnikars' bungalow and even the surrounding housing societies faced a similar problem. "I have ordered the building department to look into the way compound walls are constructed in the housing societies in this locality, especially since there is no place given from where the water can flow out. Also these areas are surrounded by tekdis and the volume of water that flows down the hillocks adds to the problem."
