The farming in 400 acres of land along the railway tracks of Central and Western railways, where vegetables are grown using drain water and sold in markets across Mumbai will be stopped.
The Municipal Corporation had found that dirty drain water flowing along the rail tracks were being used to grow vegetables. The alarm was raised by Rahul Shewale, the Chairman of the standing committee, saying that the drain water could pose health ailments. Moreover the land being used for farming belonged to the railways and the civic body is not authorized to directly ban the practices. A spokesperson of CR said, “We do regular sampling of the vegetables. There are 252 acres of agricultural land with Central Railway of which 188 acres have been allotted to class four employees.”