AAP demands that contractors be arrested and fined for the dismal state of Temghar Dam in Pune
Temghar dam in Pune district is in a precarious state. The Aam Aadmi Team from Pune, along with experts visited 4 dams – Panshet, Varasgaon, Temghar and Pawana and found that all the dams were in visibly dismal state and a potential threat to the lives of Punekars. A committee under Mr Ranade was established to look into the Temghar condition and it took 2 years to arrive at a report – and immediately a new tender has been floated for repairs.
AAP leader and Irrigation Whistleblower Vijay Pandhare stated that MERI (Nashik) had tested 136 cores from major dams in Maharashtra. 136 Cores, weighing 25 Kilos, 1 meter diameter and 1 meter height, were tested and more than 50% of the samples were of poor quality. If the required compressive strength is lesser even by 5% it is cause for serious concern but here here almost half the samples were of extreme poor quality. This report was been sent to the Maharashtra Government but it refused to act. It was sent to the Chitale Committee which also failed to take cognizance. In fact Chitale reached a false conclusion that the samples may have been weakened due to vibrations while transporting the cores to MERI, Nashik, which is utter nonsense!
Vijay Pandhare said “The Temghar dam which is leaking heavily has been weakened permanently. Now its strength cannot be re-established by any technical means. We can only reduce the leakages to some extent, that too not fully. There are at least 8 to 10 such damns in Pune region which are leaking heavily, the reason for this is, negligence during the construction of the dam. The concerned contractors and officers are responsible for this poor quality of work. Past experiences show that the leakages arre increasing year by year and these leakages leech out the cementing material heavily; as a result the dams are being weakened day by day. Unfortunately, if there is a very strong earthquake then there is no telling the dangers that may happen to such weakened dams and disasters worse than Mahad bridge will take place. The havoc caused by such a disaster on the banks of the Mutha river in Pune is unimaginable. The government must take strict actions against all the contractors and concerned officers so that at least in the future such malpractices are curbed. “
 AAP Leader Preeti Sharma Menon Said, “Yesterday Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan stated that the indeed the dam has developed cracks and needs repairs.  He stated that a case has been registered against Progressive Constructions and Srinivas Constructions. Surprisingly, neither of these two companies mention the dam as their project on their website. The dam is proudly owned by Soma Enterprises Limited, which is not even mentioned in the FIR. On their website Soma displays pictures where they have proudly collected Udyog Ratan from Shri Ajit Pawar for the excellence in execution of the Temghar Masonry Dam. The all powerful Irrigation Contractor Avinash Bhosale is a shareholder in Soma and has been a former Director. We condemn Girish Mahajan for protecting Avinash Bhosale.”
AAP Pune demands that Soma Enterprises be included in the FIR and that the cost of repairs be collected from these contractors. We demand that an internally reputed firm be appointed to audit all the dams in Maharashtra. It is a crying shame that in our state, where farmers are in such deep distress, successive governments merely line their pockets through scams and are totally uncaring about the lives of citizens.