Bombay HC says new buildings cannot come up in two Pune localities until water issues are solved.
No new buildings can come up in Pune’s Baner and Balewadi areas until the civic body solves water problems in these localities, the Bombay high court said on Friday.
A division bench of chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice Nitin Jamdar temporarily restrained the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) from allowing new projects or issuing occupancy certificates for completed construction projects.
“You keep on granting occupation certificates and new people come to reside in these areas, but without proper water supply, and the problem (of water scarcity) keeps escalating,” the judges said.
The bench noticed the PMC has not been able to regularise water supply to these areas, even though they were included under the corporation more than a decade ago.
The judges were hearing a public interest litigation filed by a 29-year-old businessman, Amol Balwadkar, who said the city of Pune had witnessed rapid growth in recent years and an exponential rise in the population.
For this, the limits of the municipal corporation were expanded 15 years ago to include Baner and Balewadi.
There is no main supply line to provide water, and despite representations and agitations, nothing has been done by the corporation, his petition said.
The PIL also pointed out that because of the acute shortage, housing societies were compelled to spend large amounts of money — almost half of their monthly maintenance fees — just to get the water.
But, these claims failed to impress the judges, who wanted feedback from residents of the locality.