Pune Mirror, 12/23/2018 Cropped page Page: 3

12/23/2018 9:06:27 PM

City 3Sunday, December 23, 2018

Ashish Tiwari, whose daughter is a Class V student at theschool, is agitated. “The school has been trying to workaround the crowded lane in the past but they are unableto sustain that, as it impacts other kids using the bus. The400-metre distance to Wipro Circle may not appear tobe an issue, but with most parents away at work at thehour of the children’s return, the job of picking them upfall on the grandparents who are mostly over 70 years inage. For them, this is a challenge,” he explained.

Similarly, another parent, Meghana B, has empath-ised with schools’ predicament. “They cannot risk thelives of other kids in the bus, trying to push through thechokehold. We’ve approached the authorities severaltimes to deal with the illegal parking and encroach-ments. The present situation of the children gettingdropped at Wipro Circle is very dangerous,” she argued.Pawar Public School’s spokesperson told Mirror, “Theroad is so heavily jammed that at times it is difficult foreven a small car to go through, let alone a bus. Lot of oth-er kids using the same bus are affected by this.”

Pawar Public School is the latest among theschools that suspended their bus service to the socie-ty. The issue has been faced and addressed by otherschools too, such as Global Indian InternationalSchool, EuroKids and Vibgyor High. “Vibgyor High,like other schools, has been encountering issues go-ing through the heavy traffic congestion on the routeto Saarrthi Sovereign. As an immediate measure, wehave deployed smaller 32-seater buses which can ma-noeuvre the route more effectively than the biggerbuses. We ensure that the children are picked up anddropped off at the society gate. Having said that, thereare times when a big oncoming vehicle on the routecan cause a delay of a few minutes as that cannot bepre-empted. We are hoping that the infrastructurewoes faced by the commuters on the route are ad-dressed immediately so that smooth functioning canresume all over again,” said school’s spokesperson.

However, parents said that this new service is yetto begin. L Reddy, whose son studies in the school,said, “Our children are suffering. Grandparents haveto go at noon to pick up the children walking 300metres as the school buses have refused to drop themhome since earlier this month.”

Similarly, Neha Sharma, whose daughter studies injunior KG at EuroKids Pre-school and Day Care, com-plained. “Both me and my husband are away at work dur-ing the day. Our routine was well set. But over the pasttwo-three months I have had to dodge between work andhome to pick up my daughter from the Wipro Circle anddrop her home, and then return to work again,” she said.

After failing to respond to the citizen requests fortwo years, police inspector at Hinjawadi traffic divi-sion Kishore Mhaswade told Mirror, “We will workwith PCMC to get rid of the encroachments and makesure the approach road is cleared of vehicles with theerrant commuters parking their vehicles being finedand punished.” PCMC’s city engineer in the civic de-partment, Ambadas Chavan, said, “We’ve receivedcomplaints from the society members, however, theapproach road falls under the gram panchayat’s juris-diction. Rahul Jambhulkar, deputy sarpanch fromHinjawadi, in turn promised to look into the matter.“I will make sure the road is cleared before the Christ-mas vacation ends,” he said.

Ayear is almost closing by since theKoregaon Bhima riots gripped thestate. As yet another date for a com-memoration the war — deemed im-portant for Dalits — draws closer,

questions regarding the disputed land andsubsequent celebrations have marked a cau-tioned presence. In a bid to address this issue,the Bombay High Court (HC), on Friday, al-lowed Pune district administration’s appealrequesting to allow public at large to enter thedisputed Jay Stambh (Vijay Stambh) land inKoregaon Bhima to pay homage to the victorypillar and arrange programmes around it.

The administration was compelled to filethis appeal as the land is under dispute over theownership between the state and the decedentof a war hero Khandojibin Jamadar, whose fam-ily possesses it at present. It has been alleged thatthe government is trying to evict the family —by calling them mere “caretakers” appointed bythe British — contrary to their claims of it being a“gift for their forefathers’ bravery”. The disputeforayed into HC and now, the bench of justice BPColabawalla, while allowing the district with itdemand, has asked government torestore backthe land after the event.

The order says, “The state government ispermitted to enter upon the suit land from De-cember 22, 2018 to make necessary arrange-

ments so as to allow the public at large to visitvictory pillar from December 30, 2018 to Janu-ary 2, 2019. Once this period expires, on Janu-ary 2, 2019, the state shall restore the status ofthe suit land (as it was on December 22, 2018),by January 12, 2019. (Even) though permis-sion is granted to enter upon the suit land forthis limited purpose, under no circumstances,the petitioner should be dispossessed underthe guise of this permission.”

Meanwhile due to HC’s status quo order,and law and order issue involved in the event,the state government filed the civil applica-tion through district collector.

Major and Hon Capt Balasaheb AnandraoJamadar, descendent of war hero KhandojibinJamadar, had filed a writ petition claiming thatthe revenue authorities are trying to change the

record of the land and also trying to evict him bydemolishing houses built on it. He also sought astay against any further action.

Jamadar told Mirror, “Despite the statusquo, the revenue authorities tried to changethe 7/12 and mutation entries and also tried toevict us. We are not against the event, butagainst the forceful eviction which is injusticeto the descendants of the war hero. This injus-tice is inflicted upon us just because we do notbelong to the Dalit community.”

In the suit, Jamadars has claimed that theirancestor, Kandojibin Gajoji Jamadar (Mal-vadkar), who was wounded in the battle of Ko-regaon Bhima, was appointed the caretaker ofthe ‘Jaysthambh’ on December 13, 1824 basedon the recommendation of Captain Staunton,who had led the British attack. The family sub-mitted a sanad (a land document) dated July30, 1870, claiming it gave them possession ofabout 260 acres of land, along with the ‘JaySthambh’ land, to their family till the timetheir male progeny continues.

But the state government claims that Ja-madar got about 260 acres of land from theBritish government for livelihood, and that hewas merely appointed the caretaker of the JaySthambh land. It also claims that the Jamadarfamily had used the land for cultivation andother commercial purpose, which was illegaland against the sanad.

The advocate representing petitioner Ja-madar, however, has given no objection to therequest from the state.

Jan 1event allowedamid HC’s status quo

Vijay.Chavan@timesgroup.com

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While those like the US President,Donald Trump, have chosen tolive in denial, the farmers in In-dia are already grappling withthe impact of climate change.

Erratic rainfall has robbed them of the yieldand exposed them to agrarian stress such aslower prices for their produce, distress overmounting loans, prompting marches againstthe government and also suicides. Time hascome to make the farmers more resilient, saysan NGO that has run a study on the fallout.

The study has found that Maharashtra isone of the most vulnerable states to be hit byclimate change. Official at the agriculture de-partment agreed that they needed to be pre-pared for what’s coming. “The Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change mentionsthat in the past two decades climate changehas inflicted losses to the tune $80 billion glob-ally and now it will cause losses of $9 billion an-nually,” said managing trustee of WatershedOrganisation Trust , Crispino Lobo.

He also elaborated that in India, every 1percent rise in temperature causes 6-7 per cent lossin both Kharif and Rabi crops. “If the planetcontinues to warm up by 2-3 degrees each year,the loss will escalate to 12-15 per cent, accord-

ingly,” Lobo said. “The high temperatures are robbing the

soil of moisture and the fertilisers and chem-icals are taking away its moisture retention ca-pacity,” added Arjuna Srinidhi, a researcher in-volved in the study. The solution lies in revert-ing to organic farming to maintain the healthof the soil. “Harvesting rainwater alone wouldnot suffice, but channelising it and increasingits efficiency would allow better use of waterand reduce agrarian distress,” he added.

There is no walking away from these find-ings as joint director at the agriculture office(Pune), Dilip Zende said, “Climate change ef-fects such as reduced rainfall, drought, hail-storms, pests due to extreme weather condi-tions and resultant poor yield has wrecked

losses amounting to 7 per cent of the cultivatedland.” He, however, refuted that annual lossescannot be predicted as the conditions keepchanging. “The crop losses can be measured af-ter they are reported, following the govern-ment’s panchanama,” he said.

Farm loss due to climatechange a reality: StudyErratic rainfall, changing soil conditions call for programmes to fortify farmers

Himanshu.Nitnaware@timesgroup.com

TWEETS @ThePuneMirror

Farmers have suffered losses due to climatechange. For instance, 1,200 pomegranateplants were wrecked in Nimgaon

KOREGAON BHIMA RIOTS ANNIVERSARY

FLASHBACK

On December 19, Mirror reported ondenial of permission to Sabhas

Petitioner, state spar over Jay Stambh land; HC wants it to be restored after event

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Kids forced towalk the mile as...

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