MJP officer to head Aurangabad Municipal Corporation's water department

Aurangabad: The appointment of an executive engineer from the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) to take over the city's water supply system has fuelled speculation regarding the fate of the controversial water distribution project.
It was widely believed that the state government is planning to scrap the Rs 792-crore water distribution project. The speculation gathered much momentum after the appointment of the new officer from MJP.
Sartaj Singh Chahel - an executive engineer working with MJP in Nanded - has taken over the charge of water supply department in the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation from executive engineer Hemant Kolhe.
Interestingly enough, people across diffident walks of life including those from some of leading political parties have been demanding the state government to scrap the water distribution launched under PPP model and to hand over the project to MJP.
"Although it is too early to comment on the issue, it could be a step taken the direction to scrap the project. The utility company has been delaying the project and there is strong demand to scrap the project. People have opposed privatisation and thus, the government seems to have gone with public sentiments," said Shankar Nagre, expert member of Marathwada Development Board.
However, municipal commissioner Om Prakash Bakoria rejected the speculations and said the appointment has to do nothing with the project. "The AMC's general body will decide the future of the project in the upcoming special meeting," he said.
Bakoria added that the civic body was in dire need of an experienced person to handle the project. "We had recently asked the government to provide an officer with experience in the field of water distribution," he told TOI.
The civic body had launched the project in September 2014 setting a deadline of three years for completion of the much-needed water distribution system. But the project is rough waters for many reasons. People do not want privatisation of water and there are apprehensions on inflated cost of water under the new system.
Pipeline bursts at Paithan road: The main water supply pipeline passing through Paithan road developed a major leakage on Thursday morning after an air valve near Mahanubhav Pant Ashram Chowk broke. The leakage caused flooding in the area for nearly half an hour as thousands of litres of drinking water gushed on the road.
The water utility company fixed the problem within a couple of hours and assured that there would be no impact on the water supply, residents feared that they would face scarcity on Friday.
Company officials said it was not a leakage but that they had opened the valve intentionally to remove an air gap.
"A team of company engineers were carrying out routine maintenance work nearby. While doing their work, they had emptied the pipeline," said Rahul Motiyele, public relations officer of Aurangabad City Water Utility Company Limited.
Motiyele added that the incident would not affect the water timing in the city.