Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Activist of Navi Mumbai speaks against Asaram Bapu' that was published in Newsband

Activist of Navi Mumbai speaks against Asaram Bapu

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Vishnu Gawli is a Navi Mumbai-based activist. He has informed the court that Asaram Bapu, along with his followers, had wasted lakhs of litres of water, while celebrating Holi.

Gawli also accused the Nagpur Municipal Corporation for provided Bapu with trucks of water for the pre-Holi celebration. He demanded that an inquiry be set up against Bapu for wasting water in a state, where there is acute shortage of water.

He also demanded that Bapu be made to give around 50,000 tanks of water to the Nagpur civic body as compensation for the water he had wasted on Sunday. He was also of the opinion that the state government should prevent any person from wasting water, during the festival of Holi, which falls on March 26 and 27. Gawli said that it was a thing of shame that when people were being educated in the matter of water conservation, the spiritual leader was carelessly wasting water. Gawli claimed that Bapu and his followers were celebrating a pre-Holi event in Airoli, Navi Mumbai on Monday.

Gawli presented a letter with all the above-mentioned information to the court. He appealed to the court to treat his letter as suo-moto public interest litigation. But the court asked Gawli to submit the letter to the registrar office, after which it would be decided if his appeal could be treated as a Public Interest Litigation.