According to Nagpur Municipal Corporation, Tony Mahal and Sadar are slum areas.
NAGPUR: Approximately 71 well-to-do localities, including some well-known commercial areas such as Mahal, Sitabuldi and Sadar, continue to be notified to slums. Ironically, 33 non-existent areas such as Sanjay Nagar, Timber Market zopadpatti still appear in the list of notified slums.
The violation came to light during the ongoing process of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to award ownership rights to slum-dwellers.
The NMC has never received a revised list of notified slums from the state government in 48 years. The civic body continued to add more areas to the list of notified slums but did not erase the names of the developed areas. According to the NMC numbers, there are 453 slums in the region.
Apart from Mahal, Sitabuldi, Sadar, other popular tony areas in the list of notified slums are Chhaoni, Mominpura, Bajeria, Hansapuri, Khamla, Gopal Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Bhamti, Dabha, Hazari Pahad, Pandhrabodi, Siraspeth, Manewada, Tulsi Bagh, Somalwa, Sahakar Nagar, Chinchbhuvan, Sakkardara, Bidipeth, Nandanvan, Killa, Baldharpura, Shanti Nagar, Binaki, New Mangalwari, Wathoda, Satranjipura, In BJP City President and Mahal resident Pravin Datke told TOI there is an immediate need to delete the names of developed areas from the list of notified slums.
Congressman Sandip Sahare said it was an “injustice” against the actual slums. “Some areas of the well-developed and economically well-off population have also been recorded as slums. NMC, central and state governments are providing funds to provide basic amenities in the slums. Leaders of the wealthy regions are taking money from the slums to their localities. Some well-to-do areas have therefore stayed on the list of notified regions, “he said.
Another reason is the NMC cannot take an action against unauthorized constructions in notified slums at par with other areas. Leena Buddha, of the NGO Center for Sustainable Development, said that only the removal of names of well-to-do and non-existent localities will reveal the true status of the city at all levels. “I proposed to the NMC that the names of 104 slums should be reviewed and omitted from the register. It gives a wrong and bad picture of the city when there are 453 slums on the index. The revision should also be carried out as soon as all residents in the area receive titles and the community provides all kinds of facilities, “she added.
The NMC official said a proposal would soon be sent to the government to bring about the change. “The NMC has the authority to alert the slum and can not conduct removal,” he said.
For the last few months, the civic body has begun a survey to classify properties, inhabitants and give ownership rights to slum-dwellers on land owned by the state government, NMC, NIT and private individuals.
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