Water cuts too late, were needed from last year: Ex-MLA Jaiswal

Nagpur: Former Ramtek MLA Ashish Jaiswal feels Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is very late in introducing water supply cuts, and this should have been done last year itself. He says the water supply situation will worsen over next year as compared to current situation.
Jaiswal, who is also an advocate, had filed a petition before Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) accusing Water Resources Department (WRD) of releasing excess water to NMC and less water to irrigation despite Pench reservoirs being constructed for irrigation purpose.
Jaiswal added improper planning of NMC and WRD is responsible for the situation. “Pench reservoirs started to get less water after construction of Chaurai dam upstream of Pench river by Madhya Pradesh (MP) government in 2017. Accordingly, WRD was supposed to plan water allocation for irrigation, NMC and other dependants.
WRD released much more water than allocated to NMC. Therefore, NMC did not levy any cut on water supply. For last one month, NMC has been drawing water from dead stock of Pench reservoirs illegally. Till date, dead stock is not refilled. In case of rains being less than average, situation will be out of control,” he said.
Jaiswal also said NMC was to reduce water losses, utilize other sources like groundwater and water from borewells, wells etc but has done nothing, and depended totally on Pench reservoirs. “MWRRA had time and again given directives to NMC and WRD but were never implemented,” he said.
Last month, Jaiswal had exposed before the MWRRA that NMC was drawing water from dead stock of Pench reservoirs without permission. WRD could release only single round of water for irrigation in last year’s kharip. Not a single drop of water was made available for rabbi season.
Jaiswal said he and the farmers will fight for irrigation water this season.
Ruling party leader Sandip Joshi said cut in water supply was postponed hoping rains in the early days of June. “Unfortunately, it rained for hardly 3-4 days,” he said.
NMC administration had proposed cut in water supply in December last year. But the general body did not approve it. At that time, Joshi had said a call would be taken in January, but that never happened.