BJP govt did not change Kolhapur's floodline: Patil

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil on Friday denied that the floodline of Kolhapur was altered by the BJP-led state government due to the builders lobby's pressure.

Some environmentalists had alleged that due to altered floodline and the resultant construction along the riverbank, the situation worsened during the floods in the first week of August.

"The floodline of Kolhapur has not been altered," Patil, a senior state minister, said, speaking to reporters here.

"The floodline there was marked on the basis of 2005 floods, and beween 2005 to 2014 the BJP was not in power. So it was the Congress which by violating floodline rules allowed construction in Kolhapur. It was their government in the centre, state and in Kolhapur municipal corporation," he said.

As there was no major flood after 2005, there was a demand that the floodline of that year should be changed as the deluge that year was exceptional, and more area along the riverbank be brought under the development zone, he said.

The floodline defines the area which is no-go for development.

"The chief minister constituted a committee. By the time the report was to come, the present flood situation was upon us," he said.

"The floodline was not altered by the CM," he stressed.

Kolhapur has the maximum number of dams in the state, and all of them were filled to the brim due to the heavy rainfall this season, Patil said.

"Generally water is needed to be discharged once the dam is 70 per cent full, but the engineers do not take the risk thinking what if it did not rain later," he said.

"So they release water once the dam is 95 per cent full," he said.

A rule should be framed that water must be discharged when a dam is 70 per cent full, the minister said.