Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has continued to delete reservations of playground in city’s development plan despite orders to the contrary passed by the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court. The latest is a plan is to delete reservation of playground on 2.23 acres land (9,032 sq mtrs) at mouza Ajni. The plan also includes deletion of reservation of residential and road on 2,099.99 sq mtres land. Thus, the civic body has proposed to delete reservations on 2.75 acres (11,131,99 sq mtrs) land in all. If NMC is doing this, how could Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) remain behind. NIT has obtained permission from state’s urban development department to delete reservations on a sprawling land measuring 8.81 acres at mouza Bharatwada. The proposal to delete reservation of playground on 2.23 acres land along with residential and road on 0.52 acres land of mouza Ajni has been tabled before the general body. The decision will be taken in the meeting on July 20. As per the proposal, user of playground will be changed to residential, open space and internal road while residential to educational and road to residential. All these changes have been proposed in khasra no 36 and 37. If the general body approves, the proposal will be submitted with the state’s urban development department. Once it okays it, suggestions and objections will be invited. Then the reservation will be deleted. In Bharatwada case, NIT had proposed to delete reservation of commercial complex and change it to residential user on khasra no 59, 62 and 64. The proposal was submitted to the urban development department that issued final notification on June 29 deleting the reservation. Last year, the HC had directed NMC and NIT not to delete reservations for playgrounds and parks. Accordingly, NIT had not deleted reservation of park in 53 unauthorized layouts in South Nagpur despite having approval from the government. A few months ago, however, NMC general body approved deletion of playground in mouza Borgaon. RTI activist TH Naidu alleged a nexus between NMC/NIT and developers that is hampering city’s development. “Reservations are made in city’s development plan for systematic development of the city and to provide all types of basic amenities to the citizens. It was the responsibility of NMC and NIT to acquire reserved lands and develop them as envisaged in the plan. Unfortunately, they did not acquire even a single such plot on their own. Some lands were acquired only after receiving application from land owners. NMC and NIT have been engaged only in deleting reservations in collusion with developers. NIT has deleted over 160 of total 882 reservations across the city. It has resulted in city becoming a concrete jungle and absence of basic amenities in several areas, especially in the outskirts. NMC and NIT do not even fear HC,” he alleged.



Facebook Twitter Linkedin EMail