Citizens carry out audit of Ramnadi encroachments

The flood-affected residents of Ramnagar and Saikamal Societies situated in Bavdhan along with a team of river activists carried out a detailed audit of the encroachments in the Ramnadi on
Saturday.

The citizens also formed a ‘Ramnadi Bachao Panchayat’ and an area sabha to increase people’s vigilance in the area and expose cases of encroachment to the authorities.

The DNA has consistently being reporting about the illegal dumping in the Ramnadi  (DNA Feb 19, Feb 23, Mar 13 and Mar 15).

The citizens studied the area where the Ramnadi passes from, which is under a bridge under the Mumbai-Bangalore highway (western bypass) and where the river enters the Pashan Lake.

The audit began after a puja was performed at the source of the Ramnadi near Bhukum. Assembling in Ramnagar Colony at 11am on Saturday, the team visited the culvert under the westerly bypass through which the river enters from the rural area into the urban area of Pune.

Jalbiradari Pune district president, Vinod Bodhankar, who led the team told DNA, “The width of the river on the rural side of the bypass is almost twice of what it is near the culvert. This results in the water coming out in great pressure and speed during the monsoon. Last year, the water carried away heavy pipelines, the road inside the culvert and the retaining walls encroaching the river.’’

Shouting slogans like ‘Ramnadi Bachao, Atikraman Hatao’, the activists visited the bridge near DSK Ranwara. Activist architect Sarang Yaadwadkar told DNA, “The new encroachments, opposite DSK Ranwara, have now happened upstream and downstream of the bridge and reduced the flow capacity further thus increasing the chances of floods during the monsoon.’’

Yadwadkar said, “As one of the banks of the Ramnadi was in the Pune Municipal Corporation area and the other was within the collector’s administrative control, notices of new encroachments had to be conveyed to both.’’

Sandeep Joshi of Shrishti Eco-Research Institute, Shailesh Kate of Vishwasanskruti, Vinod Jain, Kedar Kadam and flood-affected residents like Rajendra Teredesai, Indu Gupta, Pragati Kaushal and Amitav Mallick with 20 other citizens were present for the audit
on Saturday.