Nagpur: Complaints unresolved since years together and submissions made during earlier programmes yet to be acted upon dominated Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s ‘Janata Darbar’ on Sunday, August 18, in Nagpur.
Majority of the complaints were related to development issues in unauthorised layouts and stalled process of regularisation. After hearing citizens’ complaints regarding Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), Gadkari on Sunday kept the day reserved for issues about Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) and Nagpur Metropolitan Region Development Authority (NMRDA), the twin development authorities.
Nearly 740 complaints were received at the ‘Darbar’ and Gadkari directed officials to study the issues and resolve them at the earliest. The public outreach programme was held at Deshpande Hall, Civil Lines. Sanjay Meena, Chairman, NIT and Commissioner, NMRDA; Dr Vipin Itankar, District Collector; Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari, Municipal Commissioner; MLAs Krishna Khopde and Vikas Kumbhare were present at the outreach programme.
This programme was announced by Union Minister Gadkari after being bombarded with complaints from multiple citizens related to NIT and NMRDA in the ‘Janata Darbar’, organised last month for resolving complaints of citizens related to NMC that was focussed on water-logging problems faced by the city after the deluge. Most of these complaints were related to regularisation of unauthorised plots; bad condition of roads; absence of sewer and electricity facilities among others.
The people residing in these layouts for years together have no access to basic amenities. Though NMRDA started the process to develop these layouts under Gunthewari, the issue is now entangled in legal mess due to confusion on part of the authorities. For the citizens, it is a final hope that the ‘Janata Darbar’ of the Union Minister would at least provide them some respite from years of living without basic amenities.
But there were many citizens who had previously given the same complaints to Gadkari but their complaints were still not attended to for various reasons. Now it remains to be seen whether the ‘Janata Darbar’ helps in resolving the issues. A retired college teacher and resident of Badkas Square is struggling to get a solution for a problem pending since 2018. He sought urgent intervention to address the pathetic condition of a road marked in red on city survey map no 186.
Despite numerous applications over the past two decades to various officials, including the Chief Minister and Municipal Commissioner, the road has remained untarred and poorly maintained. There are also complaints of no roads and no lights in the Parvati Nagar area of Wanjara. The demands of road construction were put forward three times prior to this and has received nothing more than assurance of action. Citizens were hopeful that action will be taken at least this time as Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is looking to solve problems of people ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.
