NMC, RTMNU ink pact; volunteers of NSS to take care of statues in city
   Date :20-Jul-2021

Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari
 Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari and RTMNU officials after signing MoU on maintenance of statues by NSS volunteers.
 
 
Staff Reporter :
 
In a first-of-its-kind social project in country, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) inked a pact wherein volunteers of National Service Scheme (NSS) would take care of statues in city. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on Monday. Now, varsity will start allocating responsibilities to colleges in next few days with idea being the statue near to their areas should be looked after by the college students. The proposal was mooted by Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari so that statues and the surrounding area remains neat and clean round the year. In turn for their service, NSS volunteers would be trained in fire fighting and disaster response by Fire & Emergency Services of civic body.
 
There is twin advantage, for NMC, a trained manpower would be available in case of any emergency and for students they stands to benefit in case they aspire for career in fire brigade at later stage. A meeting was held at civic headquarters under Chairmanship of Mayor on Monday. Apart from elected office bearers, officials of RTMNU were also present. There are 68 statues and 14 monuments in city and Mayor thought of maintaining them through public participation. Each of the college will be given guardianship of one statue in their jurisdiction. In return, certificates will be given to the students by NMC and about 750 students would participate in this initiative. In ten years, 7500 such students will be ready. He also expressed confidence that the project would pave the way for NSS model to be adopted at national level. Raju Hiwse, Registrar, RTMNU, welcoming the initiative expressed his intention to publish a book on the number of statues in the city. He also expressed confidence that the university would always be ready and ready for such an initiative that would enhance the beauty of the city. Initially, Deputy Commissioner Milind Meshram explained the background of the initiative.
 
A committee of civic and varsity officials would be set up for the successful implementation of the project. The meeting was attended by Deputy Mayor Manisha Dhawde; Prakash Bhoyar, Chairperson, Standing Committee; Avinash Thakre, Ruling Party Leader; Dilip Dive, Chairperson, Education Committee; Divya Dhurde, Chairperson, Women and Child Welfare Committee; Rajendra Sonkusare, Chairperson, Architecture Committee; Sunil Agarwal, Sandeep Jadhav, Vijay Jhalke, Sangeeta Girhe, all corporators; Additional Commissioner Sanjay Nipane; Deputy Commissioner Vijay Deshmukh and Milind Meshram; Sopan Dev Pise, Director, NSS; Sonali Chavan, Executive Engineer; were present.