23 years on, BMC cuts water supply to garden over ‘illegal connection’

Hundreds of trees and plants in a 25acre garden in Andheri that has been created by members of the Mahakali ALM group could die soon as the BMC cut water supply to it on Friday in this blistering summer The ALM members claim the civic body has said the connection is illegal when it had assured them of 50000 litres of water every day free of cost for the garden Interestingly the ALM has been maintaining the garden since 20002001 and claim the BMC cut supply in 2017 and then restored itThe BMC however claimed the connection was found to be illegally reconnected so it was cut off again Besides endangering the greenery the lack of water in the restrooms in the Takshila ALM Park or Matoshree Meenatai Thackeray Maidan is causing problems for about 1000 visitors every dayThe Mahakali Advanced Locality Management ALM created the garden and planted all the trees plants and shrubs in it Besides the rare Rudraksh tree there are more than 150 mature other trees in addition to the numerous floral medicinal and aesthetic species of plants in the gardenNot the first timeVishwanath Shetty a senior member of the ALM said ldquoWhen we formed the ALM the trust deed with the BMC assured us 50000 litres of water every day for the upkeep of the garden and to take care of the visitors We have had a beautiful equation with the BMC but now I do not know why they are behaving differently The assistant municipal commissioner AMC ndash K East ward claims the water supply is illegal We fail to understand the meaning of such a statementrdquoThe ALM went through a similar situation in 2017 when its members met the municipal commissioner additional municipal commissioner and assistant municipal commissioner of K East ward to get the water supply restoredldquoWe also visited the superintendent of Garden in Byculla to sort out the issue as the water bill is raised to Garden Department by the Hydraulic Department for internal records Finally they restored the water Probably nothing of this is on their records and they are now claiming the connection is illegal We are at a loss to understand their logic They do not communicate with us We need to save those hundredplus trees and plants Visitors need drinking water in the garden The children who come to study need water Toilets need to be cleaned every day The 23 years of care for this garden cannot go waste We want the water supply restored Let BMC handle their internal matters and not inconvenience common people This is our humble requestrdquo Shetty addedOn Wednesday when this correspondent visited the garden he found many visitors inconvenienced due to the lack of water including children and senior citizensRamesh Pai a trustee of the ALM said ldquoThe Mahakali ALM Park is the best green lung in the area which has been developed and maintained by local residents and the trustees in order to provide excellent open air facilities for exercise yoga for students to study and for people to relax from the hectic city liferdquolsquoBMC speak untruersquoAnoop Talwar a trustee and president of the Mahakali ALM said that BMCrsquos explanation for sudden disconnection of the water without notice is untrue and unacceptableldquoBMC stated that we were given a 4050 mm water connection on January 15 2001 true and that the connection was discontinued on July 18 2017 true for lsquononpayment of outstanding of R184 lakhrsquo How come BMC let the figure mount to such a high sum without taking any action in 1620 years But the disconnection was actually due to a misunderstanding within departments of BMC regarding our agreement which provided for 50000 litres of free water each month a figure we never exceeded The proof is that they themselves reconnected the supply later after realizing their mistake Further proof is that we have never paid BMC for water till date in 22 years and yet have had our water connection It is totally untrue that we have illegally got water supply This statement by BMC is only to justify their wrong action in disconnecting our water The fact is that the bill is supposed to be paid by the Gardens department directly as per standard practice but from time to time this is forgotten and the bill is sent to us wrongly and later withdrawnrdquo Talwar saidldquoPerhaps the real reason for disconnection was the water shortage They should have at least provided for drinking water or rationed water till the situation improved Water is required for plants in this beautiful park used by approximately 1500 people each day and also for drinkingrdquo Talwar addedMonica Menon secretary of the ALM said ldquoA sudden water cut in a public place is inhumanrdquoBMC speakAssistant Municipal Commissioner AMC of K East Ward Manish Walung said ldquoIn this case 40mm times50mm dia connection under code no KER6682000 was granted to Ms Mahakali Advance Locality VJB Udyan Byculla Mumbai on 15012001 Same was disconnected on 18072017 under DCO for outstanding of R1842994 It was found illegally joined hence again cut off on 16062023This matter is also informed to ASGKE The matter was also informed to the Garden Departmentrdquo1500Approximate No of visitors to the garden every day