PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Friday claimed that river beds in city limits were completely free of encroachment.

“There are no encroachments on the Mula, Mutha and the Ramnadi that
flow through city limits. Hence, the question of action against
encroachments does not arise,” the civic administration said before the
general body (GB) meeting.

The civic administration was responding to Shiv Sena
corporator Prithviraj Sutar’s query that came up for discussion on the
July agenda of the GB meeting. Sutar had sought information on rivers,
encroachments and the actions taken by the civic body. The
administration made the claims in a written reply.

As the GB meeting was adjourned on Friday to pay condolences to actor Rajesh Khanna
and others who demised this month, the issue was not debated. However,
the administration’s answer evoked sharp reactions from opposition
parties and civic activists.

BJP city unit chief Vikas Mathkari
said, “The PMC’s answer is shocking. We all know that rivers in city
have been squeezed in by slum encroachments and illegal constructions.
The civic administration has just shown its ignorance and apathy towards
this serious issue”.

“If the PMC is unaware of encroachments, we are ready to help them identify the encroached
parts of the rivers. In fact, in the entire state, Pune has maximum
encroachments in rivers. It seems the PMC has shown complete ignorance
while answering the question,” said Sunil Joshi, convener of Jal Biradari.

A survey conducted by the district collector and the PMC in 2007 had
shown that the width of the Ramnadi had shrunk by eight to 20 metres and
that direction of the river had changed drastically because of
encroachments.

Even moderate showers during monsoon see water
from Ramnadi gushing into houses nearby. The activists working for the
cause of rivers said this was happening because the rampant
encroachments on the river bed has drastically reduced the
water-carrying capacity of the river.

Magsaysay award winner
Rajendra Singh during his recent visit to the city had said that in
Pune, demarcation of land was required to protect the river beds from
encroachments.

“Earlier, rivers were treated like mothers, but now they have become garbage dumps,” Singh had said, insisting that the civic body should stake harder steps to remove encroachments in river beds.

Activists have repeatedly alleged that over the last few years, the
river beds have seen rampant encroachments in the form of new
structures. River beds are also being used as a ground to dump
construction debris.