Amid Water Cut Pune Civic Body Slammed After Video Of Tanker Watering Plants In Rain Goes Viral

Pune Municipal Corporation has faced the ire of citizens after a video of a water tanker irrigating plants along a divider in the rain on Paud Road surfaced, with the civic body being called out for wasting water at a time when the city faces a water cut.

“The particular road divider is maintained and supervised by the Pune Metro. There is a bridge for the elevated Metro route above the divider which spans a very large area. The road divider is in the middle. Rainwater does not fall along this place. The employee is watering the plants to save them,” said additional municipal commissioner Omprakash Divate.

BJP leader Sandeep Khardekar sought clarification from the civic administration, urging for action against those found watering plants in the rain.

“Today, a video of a tanker watering trees in heavy rain has gone viral on all social media and the Pune civic body and its corporators were mocked. There is a lot of criticism over it,” he said, adding he will get to the root of the matter.

He found the persons involved in the incident and spoke to both the tanker owner and then the person who rented his tanker.

Khardekar said the PMC administration should immediately investigate the revelations. He added that the owner of a tanker supplier had rented the tanker in question to an advertising agency that obtained the advertising rights from Pune Metro and in return beautified the divider.

The advertising agency stated that the plants had not been watered for the last ten days, so a tanker was rented as it was necessary to keep the plants alive by watering them. Khardekar said the tanker owner also conveyed that the water used was from a borewell in Warje.