Water shortage: HC directive to Pune civic body.
The Bombay High Court Friday restrained the Pune Municipal Corporation from issuing commencement and occupancy certificates to under-construction properties in the Baner and Balewadi areas in the outskirts of Pune, owing to water shortage.
A bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice N M Jamdar was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by Amol Balwadkar, who has recently been elected corporator from the city.
In his petition, Balwadkar claimed that “indiscriminate construction” was happening in these areas.
While the lawyer for the petitioner claimed that the construction was putting pressure on water supply and sought a stay on issuance of commencement and occupancy certificates, the counsel appearing for the corporation said no purpose would be served if there was no development in the area.
Pointing out that the water woes of the residents of Baner and Balewadi had not been resolved despite their inclusion in the limits of the Pune Municipal Corporation 15 years ago, the lawyer for the petitioner held that the developers were utilising water from the corporation, resulting in deficit of water supply in the these areas.
The civic body, meanwhile, informed the court that despite the commencement of rains, there had been little respite in terms of water supply.
“Till the next date of hearing, no commencement and occupancy certificate should be issued,” said the Chief Justice, adding that similar relief had been provided in a matter relating to water scarcity in Ghodbunder Road in Thane.

Now, residents bank on court order for water.
Pune: The residents of Baner and Balewadi have found a lifeline in a Bombay high court order after suffering from acute water scarcity for years.
The high court in an interim order on Friday restrained the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) from issuing commencement and occupation certificates to new buildings in Baner and Balewadi.
They want the authorities to take up the problem seriously and act upon it.
"We have been facing the issue for years and following it up with the authorities.
But hardly any action was taken.
PMC city engineer Prashant Wagmahre said the civic administration will follow the order.
We will follow the high court’s directives and stop issuing occupancy certificates," he added.
We had to arrange tankers to get drinking water in our housing society.
She added that the residents hoped that water woes would be a thing of past following the high court’s order and the money spent on getting tankers can now be used for the development of the housing society where she stays.

Photo By Sgt.
Matt Kuzara | Maj. Gen. Terrence McKenrick, deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Central, introduces… read more ALEXANDRIA, Va. – U.S. Army Central’s senior leadership assembled for a four-day conference with six partner nations from Central and South Asia for the USARCENT Land Forces Symposium here June 19-22.
The symposium gave senior leaders, such as Lt. Gen. Michael Garrett, commanding general, USARCENT, as well as military representatives from USARCENT’s partner nations in the region an opportunity to hear from civilian and military experts on issues of importance to global and regional security.
“While some would say that the easy answer is to simply shut-down borders and to live in isolation, the asymmetric threats that we all face in our current operating environment make this option both infeasible and unobtainable.
With that goal, the experts spoke on topics ranging from defeating ISIS, under-standing Iranian malign influence in the region, and what a post-conflict Syria and Iraq will look like.
Dr. Rod Schoonover, Director of Environmental and Natural Resources for the National Intelligence Council who spoke on how changes to global temperature, water scarcity, deforestation, and overfishing can affect the U.S. and our partner nations in the region, adding to the diversity of ideas.
“Countries that are most vulnerable to such stresses are those with weak political institutions, poor economic conditions, and existing political strife.
Addressing instability would require not only understanding and mitigating the environmental stresses directly but also through strengthening the political and social institutions within a given state,” said Schoonover.
“I think what was very useful for all the nations in the Central Asian Region, is that they have to know what is going on in the region and that they have to come together to help each other to fight against terrorists like Al Qaida and ISIS,” said Col. Abdul Hadi Barakzai of the Afghan National Army, “I think there was a pretty good experience and everybody got to speak their view about the region.” USARCENT demonstrates its enduring commitment to its partners by continuing to build on existing relationships and understanding the culture of the region.
The command plans on continuing to help ensure that the countries in the region can work together to meet security challenges.

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.

The project has become famous as the Kadwanchi model since it helps grow grapes, a water-intensive crop.
Now, 95% of farmers in the area cultivate grapes.
The 45-year-old farmer says he has been making handsome profit every year by cultivating grapes on his 15-acre semi-arid land, irrespective of rainfall, which was up to 50% less than the normal during the drought years.
Under the watershed project, we took several measures to arrest soil erosion and water to recharge underground water-table,” said social activist Vijay Borade, who conceptualised the project.
The project was implemented in the three villages by Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) under the Indo-German Watershed Project from 1996 to 2002.
Also, water can be seen in farms due to bunding.
The volume of partial failure of crops has come down significantly due to the project,” Wasre said.
He said adoption of the cost-effective Kadwanchi model can make the farmers in the Marathwada region self-sufficient in water.
While the Marathwada region has been in limelight for farmers’ suicide in the past few years — with 900 farmers killing themselves in 2016 — Kshirsagar said farmers from the watershed area never faced financial distress.
Before the watershed project, the average yearly income in the villages was Rs 77 lakh.

Madhya Pradesh: 21 peacocks die of water scarcity.
Morena: Atleast 21 peacocks died of water scarcity in Sumawali forest area of Joura town in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district.
The forest department rushed to the spot and sent the bodies for postmortem.
Confirming the report, Sub Divisional Magistrate Pradeep Singh said, the officials are investigating the matter and assured that the damaged hand pumps would be immediately repaired.
The matter was reported when people from Hatupura village of the town found the dead peacocks in the forest.
Morena (MP): More than 21 peacocks found dead in Sumawali forest area; forest officials on the spot pic.twitter.com/0EYOUFG68c — ANI (@ANI_news) June 22, 2017 The villagers have accused the local administration to be negligent of their duties, which have lead to the rise in the untimely deaths of peacocks in the region in the past three years.
Reacting to the incident, forest department officials claimed that in the recent times ponds have been constructed, but the region has been facing deficit of rainfall since a few years, which has eventually led to death of these birds.
The department has asserted that strict measures would be taken to prevent such situation in the future.

The project has become famous as the Kadwanchi model since it helps grow grapes, a water-intensive crop.
Now, 95 per cent of farmers in the area cultivate grapes.
There used be drought in our villages.
The 45-year-old farmer says he has been making handsome profit every year by cultivating grapes on his 15-acres semi-arid land, irrespective of rainfall, which was up to 50 per cent less than the normal during the drought years.
Under the watershed project, we took several measures to arrest soil erosion and water to recharge underground water-table," said social activist Vijay Borade, who conceptualised the project.
The project was implemented in the three villages by Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) under the Indo-German Watershed Project from 1996 to 2002.
Also, water can be seen in farms due to bunding.
The volume of partial failure of crops has come down significantly due to the project," Wasre said.
He said adoption of the cost-effective Kadwanchi model can make the farmers in the Marathwada region self-sufficient in water.
Before the watershed project, the average yearly income in the villages was Rs 77 lakh.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Sheikh Anser Aziz was chosen as Islamabad’s mayor back in 2015 when the party gained a majority in the city’s local bodies elections. Aziz was a contractor – enlisted with CDA – who also managed a contract of the renovation of the Marghzar Zoo in 2008, even though his firm was not registered with the SECP. On Feb 15, Sheikh became the first-ever mayor of Islamabad. He came with big promises and claims to address the issues being faced by the citizens, including water scarcity issue. But he has been a mayor for 18 months now and nine months are passed since he became the CDA chairman, but nothing has been changed other than transfers and postings. Though it was not an easy task for him as the CDA labour union challenged the transfer of employees, departments and assets from the CDA to MCI in Islamabad High Court (IHC), and the matter is still subjudice. Meanwhile, a serious…

Water, barley, hops, and yeast. To many beer purists, these are the four ingredients, and the only four, that are allowed in beer. Most brewers are a bit more open-minded about what goes into their beers, of course. But climate change might soon make those four ingredients too expensive to drink. NASA’s projections for the future include warmer winters, more intense hurricanes, droughts, and more importantly, vast shifts in the crops we grow, the resources we have at our disposal, and how we’ll…

MP: 21 peacocks die of water scarcity.
Atleast 21 peacocks died of water scarcity in Sumawali forest area of Joura town in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district.
The forest department rushed to the spot and sent the bodies for postmortem.
Confirming the report, Sub Divisional Magistrate Pradeep Singh said, the officials are investigating the matter and assured that the damaged hand pumps would be immediately repaired.
The matter was reported when people from Hatupura village of the town found the dead peacocks in the forest.
The villagers have accused the local administration to be negligent of their duties, which have lead to the rise in the untimely deaths of peacocks in the region in the past three years.
Reacting to the incident, forest department officials claimed that in the recent times ponds have been constructed, but the region has been facing deficit of rainfall since a few years, which has eventually led to death of these birds.
The department has asserted that strict measures would be taken to prevent such situation in the future.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)