PUNE: Approval of the standing committee of the Pune Municipal
Corporation as well as the general body will have to be sought before
the new water contract between the state irrigation department and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is signed.

The committee meeting on Tuesday approved a resolution stating that the
administration should table the contract details before the committee
and the GB and only then initiate further steps in this regard.

“The PMC plans to sign a contract with the irrigation department for
water supply,” said standing committee chairman Baburao Chandere.
“Elected members are of the opinion that they should know the contract
terms and conditions.”

Shreenath Bhimale, BJP corporator and
committee member said, “The city needs around 16 TMC water every year.
But the PMC plans to sign a contract for 11.5 TMC. We want to reset the
contract terms and conditions so that citizens are not deprived of
water.”

The PMC and the irrigation department had signed a
contract in 2004 that ended in 2010. In this contract, the PMC received
11.5 TMC water from the irrigation department.

The collective
storage of dams providing water to the city is 29 TMC. 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 vaporisation
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.

When TOI contacted municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak, he said, “The
civic administration will follow due process in signing the contract.
“Earlier, the standing committee and the GB had given the go-ahead to
sign a contract,” he said.