Nagpur: To address the nagging problem of removing hawkers from Sitabuldi Main Road, Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari on Monday inspected some land parcels in Sitabuldi area itself. Pursuant to clamp down by the civic body on the hawkers, a case was filed in the High Court wherein the NMC was directed to first rehabilitate the hawkers and then declare the main road as no hawking zone.
Post redevelopment of Sitabuldi market, the citizens and shopkeepers are finding it difficult to reach the shops or even find parking space on the road. The Sitabuldi Main Road is perennially congested as a large number of hawkers take over the vacant spaces in front of shops and spread their wares for selling. Nearly 103 hawkers are registered with NMC and the civic body has time and again tried to rehabilitate them without any success.
Gold Rate
Wednesday 07 Jan. 2025
In the meantime, open spaces in the Sitabuldi area started disappearing and towering buildings have come-up there. With hearing due in the hawkers case, the Municipal Commissioner along with officials of NMC visited Sitabuldi area. The officials inspected three spots, a small strip adjoining nullah behind NIT’s parking plaza, off Amravati Road. However the land it seems belongs to Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, and hence there could be some problem in getting the same transferred to NMC.
Though at present, the site is a no-man’s land and largely remains so throughout the year. The officials said another land strip was that on DP Road, behind Mor Bhavan. It was also surveyed by the NMC officials with a view to study feasibility of shifting the hawkers here. And third one is the footpath from just after NIT’s parking plaza till Maharajbagh Square, but the site is already declared as Hawkers Zone.
This is about 180 metres of identified hawkers zone, 53 of them were notified by NMC way back. After the physical visit, the officials from the Market Department, Revenue and Estate Department would sit together and find a solution. The Municipal Commissioner would then file the affidavit in the High Court, informing about the sites for rehabilitation of the Sitabuldi hawkers.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Ajay Charthankar, Deputy Commissioners Milind Meshram and Prakash Varade along with Assistant Commissioner Harish Raut, Executive Engineer, Establishment, Pankaj Parashar, accompanied the Commissioner during the site inspection. Enforcement Department’s Sanajy Kamble, Manohar Rathod andDeendayal Tembhekar were also present.
