Economic
Times: Mumbai: Tuesday, 25 August 2015.
Mithi River
Authority, which was set up after the July 26, 2005 deluge in Mumbai, under the
chairmanship of the Chief Minister, has not held a single meeting in the last
five years, response to an RTI query has revealed.
RTI activist
Anil Galgali today said that he had sought information from the authority,
which was set up to restore the Mithi river that was the reason behind the 2005
disaster, about the details of the meetings held by it since 2005.
The Deputy
Planner and Public Information officer of the Authority, Shivraj Pawar informed
Galgali that the Mithi River Development and Protection Authority was
established on August 19, 2005, with the Chief Minister as its Chairman.
He informed
that ever since the formation of the body, total of 6 meetings have been held.
While two
meetings were held in 2005, one meeting each was held in the years 2006, 2007,
2008 and 2010. However, in the past five years (between 2011 and 2015),
previous Chief Ministers Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan and the current
one-Devendra Fadnavis did not hold even a single meeting, Pawar told Galgali.
According to
the activist, the Chief Secretary has been made the Chairman of the high-power
committee of the Authority and the committee, too, has met 11 times since
establishment. Of the 11 meetings, one meeting each was held in the years 2005
and 2012, two meetings each were held in the years 2006 and 2008, and a maximum
of five meetings were held in 2013 alone.
There have
been no meetings of the high-powered committee under Chief Secretaries J
Saharia and Swadheen Kshatriya.
On being
questioned about how many meetings were mandatory in a year, Galgali was
informed that no such rule is in the government resolution.
The length of
the Mithi river is 17.8 kms, of which the Municipal Corporation of Greater
Mumbai (MCGM) looks after the development of 11.8 kms from Vihar Lake to CST
bridge. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is
responsible for developing the remaining six kms from CST bridge to Mahim
causeway, including the Vakola nalla portion.
After the
Mithi river disaster in 2005 the Maharashtra government formed the Authority
and fixed the responsibility of cleaning and development work on the MMRDA and
the MCGM.
"Rs
1,200 crore have been spent on the development activities of the Mithi river
till date and the work remains non-satisfactory," Galgali alleged. PTI
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