Last month, municipal commissioner Dinesh Waghmare had conducted surprise inspections to check the cleanliness of these nullahs. As the cleaning work was incomplete, he had directed officials to finish the work by June 10.
Raju Savale, vice-president, environment cell of Pimpri Chinchwad unit of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena said, “The contractors clean the nullah stretches that are close to the main road and visible to people. They do not clean the stretches that are located in the interior areas, which is evident from the nullahs flowing through old and new Sangvi.Meanwhile, there is rampant growth of grass in the nullah flowing along Vallabhnagar and Kasarwadi, along the Pune-Mumbai highway .“
Corporator Swati Kalate said that civic officials do not check whether the contractors have cleaned the entire nullah. As a result, citizens suffer during flooding as garbage and debris prevent the rainwater from being drained quickly .
“There are a total of 196 nullahs in the city , including 128 big nullahs and 68 small nullahs. While the big nullahs are cleaned by civic employees, the small nullahs are cleaned via private contractors. The contracts for nullah cleaning work in Zone E (Moshi, Indrayaninagar, Bhosari, Charholi and other areas) and Zone F (Masulkar colony , Kudalwadi-Jadhavwadi, Triveninagar, Chikhli, Talawade and other areas) were allotted late due to the poor response of bidders during the tender process. The remaining work will be over in the next two to three days,“ the health executive officer of PCMC Meenanath Dandavate said.
Source : TOI
