The water issue in Thane city, where chief minister Eknath Shinde resides, continues despite several promises from the state and local governments, and it could get worse over the summer. Many residences, especially those along the affluent Ghodbunder Road, pay private tanker firms lakhs of rupees to supply them with water, yet this is still the case.
In light of the current water problems in this area, two residents of Ghodbunder Road have given legal notice to the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC). The corporation, according to the locals, broke its pledges to the Bombay High Court.
“The water shortage in and around Ghodbunder has taken a severe form. Instead of finding a solution, the municipality is fuelling the tanker mafia. Residents of over 30 complexes approached me complaining of the scarcity. They are spending huge money on private tankers,” said BJP MLASanjay Kelkar.
Madhu Narayananunni and Dattatray Ghadage, two residents of Manorama Nagar and Kavesar, claim in the notice that no such committee has yet been formed and no meetings have been held to solve the water crisis. They have told the TMC that if a committee is not formed and a meeting is not called within the next seven days, they intend to file a case for contempt of court with the High Court.
Given that the state is now controlled by the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Thane BJP, they have issued a grave warning that if the problem is not resolved, there will be a sizable demonstration in the city.
Over 585 mld of water from various sources are used to irrigate this growing municipality next to Mumbai's population of over 25 lakh people. Following the city's severe water crisis in the summer of 2016, Thane resident Mangesh Shellar filed a PIL [Public Interest Litigation] at the High Court. In it, he ascribed responsibility for the city's water shortages to the TMC's poor planning and the haphazard way in which it approved brand-new structures along the Ghodbunder Road.
The court mandated that no new developments along Ghodbunder Road be authorised in 2016 as a result of this PIL. The corporation must also provide an affidavit detailing the water connections and occupation certificates issued over the previous five years, as ordered by the court.
In the document, the company asserted that the TMC has implemented water management to meet demographic demands through 2025. In 2017, the court dismissed the petition, allowing the area to resume building. However, there were some requirements that the civic body had to follow before the disposal could take place.
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