“The irrigation department is asking the PMC to pay Rs
910 crore, since water reserved for irrigation and, ultimately,
agriculture in the district will suffer. This is an injustice to
citizens as Pune pays tax worth Rs 15,000 crore to the state government
and it is the state’s responsibility to provide drinking water,” said Vivek Velankar and Vishwas Sahastrabuddhe of the SNM.

Producing written communication between the irrigation department and
the PMC, Velankar said the irrigation department wants compensation for
the extra water
as well as for infrastructure works related to irrigation. “If we
calculate the total financial expenses that would incur while meeting
all the demands of irrigation, the PMC will have a burden of around Rs
910 crore,” said Velankar.

The PMC and the irrigation department
had signed a contract in 2004 that ended in 2010. In this contract, the
PMC claimed 11.50 TMC water. A new contract is expected to be drawn up
this year in which the PMC wants to get 16 TMC water for the city.

Irrigation department officials say the collective storage of dams
providing water to the city is 29 TMC of which the PMC uses 14.5 TMC
every year, while 1.5 TMC water goes to industries and towns, including
Daund and Indapur. Around 2 TMC water is lost to vaporatisation annually
and the remaining water is released for irrigation to Daund, Indapur
and Haveli talukas of Pune district and some parts of Solapur in three
phases every year, for kharif, rabi and summer crops.Irrigation officials were not available for comment.