This is one of the biggest and last Prabhag of Nagpur Municipal Corporation in the South West corner of the city and is full of challenges for any of the contestant. Prabhag 35 showcases many contrasts as it combines some very old settlements, like Ajni Railway Colony to new and emerging Manish Nagar and Chinchbhuvan areas, located on the city’s boundary. Nestled closely with the Besa area, the Prabhag 35 that is the cynosure of today’s reality market, thanks to take off Manish Nagar. It is one of the prime market of city now with many jostling for space. As the election day approaches, The Hitavada took a tour of the residential colonies to understand the issues that citizens face in their day to day lives.

 

 

 

The Prabhag boundary takes off from Ajni Railway Colony and criss crosses Narendra Nagar, a maze and nightmare of urban development, and then runs parallel to Mumbai-Howrah line towards East upto Chimri Square near Raosaheb Thawre Vidyalay. It then touches the Container Depot and moves over to Rameshwari Road and runs along Shatabdi Square heading towards Manish Nagar and adjoining localities. The entire Prabhag lies in South West Assembly segment represented by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and during the 2017 elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made a clean sweep. Of the four coporators, this time the ruling party has rested old guard Avinash Thakre, Ruling Party Leader in outgoing NMC House.

 

Another change is that of Jayshree Wadibhasme. The BJP has retained Sandip Gavai and Vishaka Mohod in the four member panel. The rival Congress Party too has fielded all new faces in the four member panel hoping to win the favour of voters. Last time in one of the seat in Prabhag, Congress was nowhere to be seen and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate was runners-up in 35 C seat. The major issues that the people in the locality are grappling with is congested lanes due to over exploitation and lack of systematic planning. Most of the area got developed in an unregulated way and hence the area in Manish Nagar is quite dense.

 

Major part of area around Inner Ring Road is still lacking in development as it is predominantly dominated by economically poor classes. Negotiating the internal roads in this Prabhag is quite a challenge and the population ratio is quite mixed with one side dominated by SC voters, and thereafter cosmopolitan crowd is newly development Manish Nagar and adjoining residential colonies.

 

The people said while garbage collection or dumping is not that a major issue, the lack of maintenance of tar road is indeed a burning problem. Coming under the Dhantoli Zone, it being at the fag end means in terms of development got overlooked to a certain extent, feels the voters in the Prabhag. Citizens want a proper road network and addressing the issue of traffic snarls that is assuming a dangerous situation due to rising population on the adjoining Besa-Beltarodi area. Although the ruling BJP has gained upper hand by giving away land pattas in Rameshwari to slum dwellers, it hopes to bank on their baking to sail through easily. The two railway under bridges, one at Narendra Nagar and other one at Manish Nagar comes under this Prabhag and poses challenge for citizens. During the monsoon, they get flooded preventing access to other side causing severe inconvenience.