DNA IMPACT: Civic chief Praveen Pardeshi tells officials to clean Poisar River

In a major relief for members of River March, which carried out citizen survey of a one km stretch of Poisar River and found solid waste dumped, municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi has asked civic officials to address the complaints.

DNA, on Wednesday, had reported about four members of River March — Sagar Vira, Anil Pandya, Adv Bhagyashree Mahale and Pankaj Trivedi — who were out on May 26 carrying out a recce along Poisar River for an upcoming clean-up drive and were taken aback witnessing garbage chocking Poisar River at few stretches between SV Road, Kandivali (west) near Mayfair building and Kandivali (east) Bihari Tekdi, Janta Nagar.

"Municipal commissioner has already taken stock of the situation and asked officials to look into the matter and resolve it," said Ram Dotonde, spokesperson for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Meanwhile, deputy chief engineer VH Khandkar, Storm Water Drain (SWD) clarified that the stretch along with areas like Bihari Tekdi, Janta Nagar as well as near Mayfair building was cleared and we have images of May 11 and May 15 showing so.

"The Poisar River passes through one of the densest slum networks and despite repeated requests, people keep dumping all the garbage from the slums including that generated from houses and small industrial units directly into the river giving an impression that it wasn't cleaned before," he said adding that however, they will work out a plan to clear the solid waste thrown in post cleaning too.

Meanwhile, members of River March- a citizens movement that is campaigning for clean rivers said that they were happy that Municipal Commissioner decided to intervene and it shows he is a positive attitude towards citizen's movement.