The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the state government to install water purification plants inside Taloja Central Prison to provide clean drinking water for the inmates.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Gauri Godse passed the direction while hearing a petition filed by former cop Abhay Kurundkar, who is an accused in the murder of another police officer, with whom he was allegedly having an affair. Kurundkar sought adequate water for the inmates claiming water supply from the local planning authority CIDCO, was grossly inadequate.
The Taloja prison authorities submitted an affidavit pursuant to earlier high court order stating that the central prison has received between 5.7 lakh litres and 583 lakh litres of water from the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) in the last 15 days.
Affidavit lists out storage of water
An affidavit was filed by Dattatray Gawade, superintendent of Taloja Central Prison, giving a chart of water received from CIDCO from June 17 to July 2. Besides, the affidavit lists out the storage of water in the jail premises.
“I say that there are two wells at Taloja Central Prison, however, water in the said well is used only for cleaning purposes and not for drinking. I say that at present there are 15 plastic water tanks having capacity of 5000 Litre and the same are cleaned every week,” read the affidavit filed by the SP.
"Water from tanks is tested on a regular basis for its potability"
Further it states that the water from these tanks is tested on a regular basis for its potability. The affidavit adds: “I further say and submit that every month water from the said tank is sent to the Public Health Department, Kokan Bhavan, CBD Belapur for testing. I say that this month the Public Health Department on 08/06/2023 had taken samples of water from the safety tanks and the report dated 14/06/2023 received from the Public Health Department, Kokan Bhavan, Navi Mumbai shows that water is safe for drinking.”
Following a request, the jail has been provided with additional 20 water tanks having capacity of 5000 litre. The HC has kept the petition for hearing after four weeks.
