PMC officials to meet CM over water issues, irrigation dept’s demand of Rs400 cr arrears | Pune News

Pune: Officials of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have sought time to meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis over issues like the city’s water supply, including availability, and the state irrigation department’s demand for clearance of arrears amounting to over Rs400 crore against excess usage.PMC commissioner Naval Kishore Ram on Friday said the irrigation department’s demand of arrears is not logical. The administration has sought time to meet the CM and discuss all issues related to water. “We hope that the meeting will be scheduled soon,” he said.Ram said PMC’s objection was with the irrigation department’s calculations of arrears based on industrial use. “The civic body supplies water to residential areas and there is hardly any usage for industrial purposes. We will take up all these problems with the CM. We will also explain how the city’s population has gone up considerably and we provide water to everyone, including the floating population,” he said.Sources from the civic body said the irrigation department was considering a reduction in water supply to the city over the next week to press for payment of arrears. However, officials from the water supply department said they had not received any such warning.“The irrigation department wants us to pay arrears of over Rs400 crore, but we have challenged the claim before the state water tribunal,” said head of the civic water supply department Nandkishor Jagtap.The PMC lifts around 19 TMC to 20 TMC water from the Khadakwalsa dam, annually. The irrigation department said the civic body has been sanctioned only 14.5 TMC water. The civic body has already tabled a demand to revise the water quota to at least 21 TMC, especially after the population increase with the addition of 32 fringe areas to the municipal jurisdiction.Meanwhile, water supply department officials said the irrigation department has recently also demanded Rs10 crore against laying of a water pipeline. They said the demand was not justified. The pipeline was being laid for the equitable water supply scheme and not for any private work. Officials said they were expecting the irrigation department to cooperate in executing public works and providing water to citizens.