The judges also asked the board whether it can contribute to the Chief Minister's drought relief fund. pti file photo
The Bombay High Court today asked the BCCI whether it could shift IPL matches out of Pune in view of the grim water crisis in Maharashtra even as the cricket board said it would procure treated sewage water for maintenance of pitches in Mumbai and Pune.
A bench of Justices V M Kanade and M S Karnik, hearing a PIL by NGO Loksatta Movement challenging use of large quantities of water in stadiums at a time when the state was reeling under severe drought conditions, asked the BCCI to respond to this tomorrow.
The judges also asked the board whether it can contribute to the Chief Minister's drought relief fund.
As the BCCI said it had supplied 40 lakh litres of water to stadiums per day for IPL tournaments so far, the judges asked whether it was ready to supply the same quantity to water-starved villages in and around Pune.
During the hearing, the Cricket Board counsel Rafiq Dada informed the bench that BCCI had tied up with Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) to procure treated sewage water for IPL matches to be played in Mumbai and Pune.
Nine Indian Premier League (IPL) matches have been planned in Pune and eight in Mumbai, where the opneing match was held on April 9 at Wankhede stadium here, the BCCI's counsel told the court.
Three matches are slated to be held in Nagpur, and IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab has agreed to shift them to Mohali or elsewhere if the HC tells it, he said.
Everyday, 7-8 tankers of treated sewage water would be supplied to the stadiums, Dada said, adding use of treated sewage water should be encouraged because after treating it is released into the sea and goes wasted now, he said.
"In this case, instead of discharging treated sewage water into the sea, we are using it in the stadiums," the BCCI counsel said.
The bench also asked RWITC to give an undertaking whether it would supply treated sewage water for the ground maintenance in Pune.
The HC had lambasted the BCCI during the last hearing on the use of huge quantities of water for the pitches.
The BCCI Counsel said that after the High Court pulled up the cricket Board for using water in stadiums it has taken the issue very seriously.
In another development, Maharashtra acting Advocate General Rohit Dev informed the court of the immediate and long term measures the Government would adopt to meet the drought situation.
The acting AG said the state government was concerned about the grim water situation and had asked the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai to conduct a probe into the source of water used for ground maintenance during the first IPL match in Mumbai.
He said the state has drawn up immediate and long term plans to tackle the drought situation and the government would ensure not even one drop of potable water was used for the maintenance of cricket grounds.
On immediate plans to tackle the drought situation, he said a train carrying many tankers of water had been sent to Latur district in the worst-hit Marathwada region.
Justice Kanade asked the government to ensure that water should also reach villages near Latur.
About long-term measures, the acting AG said the government has embarked upon an ambitious project of Rs 2500-3000 crore with the help of World Bank to cover 3,800 villages in eight districts of drought-hit Marathwada.
This project would focus on development of farm ponds, removal of silt, artificial recharge of ground water level, he said.
Another long term measure to tackle the problem is implementation of a Rs 2,000-crore project during 2015-16 known as Jalayukta Shivar Scheme, he told the court.
The state had also formed a Disaster Management Committee under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
He said "we welcome any number of PILs on the issue and do not consider PILs as an adversary."
During the last hearing in the matter on April 7, the court had declined to stay the IPL opening match on April 9 here, as sought by the PIL. The court had then come down heavily on the state government questioning its seriousness in tackling the situation.
The PIL sought moving out 20 IPL matches scheduled in Maharashtra -- Mumbai and other cities -- in view of the water crisis.
The judges had asked the government and the Municipal Corporation to file separate affidavits, stating whether the water supplied to stadiums during the IPL matches was potable or non-potable.
The judges also asked both the authorities to inform whether they had formulated any policy for supply of potable and non-potable water to Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan and other cities in Maharashtra.
