Nashik: Acting upon the order of the high court, the civic administration has removed hoardings from Nandini river but is yet to remove the concrete foundation on the river bed. Petitioner Rajesh Pandit has demanded these structures be removed from the blue line at the earliest.Pandit had filed a public interest litigation in which he held all the government offices responsible for river pollution. Environment activists in the city have been demanding that besides making the river and its tributaries pollution-free, concrete should also be removed from the river bed and the blue line.Recently, Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) removed all the hoardings and frame holdings on Nandini river but did not remove the concrete structures on the riverbed that held the hoardings.“As per the order of the high court on March 30, 2017 and the appeal in my letter (April 9) on removal of unauthorised constructions on the blue line, it has been understood that NMC has removed some unauthorised constructions like hoardings. However, when we visited the spot we saw the hoardings and structures for setting these were removed. The foundation where these were set up had not been removed,” said Pandit.He said the foundations were constructed with cement and concrete by digging 10-15 feet deep into the riverbed/blue line. “I have written to the district collector and will send copies to all members of the committee formed by the court to tackle river pollution. These include the municipal commissioner, the revenue commissioner and other members. As per NEERI’s suggestion, the district administration has mentioned in the report that it would not use cement and concrete in the river bed or on the blue line,” added Pandit.In the letter, Pandit appealed to the district collector to direct the civic administration and the water resources department to remove the concrete foundation so that the gene pools in the riverbed or blue line is rejuvenated and the order of the high court and the suggestion of NEERI is followed in the true sense. “All the unauthorised concrete structures on the river bed/blue line and its tributaries have to be removed,” said Pandit.

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