NAGPUR Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) ambitious 100-day anti-encroachment drive has officially surpassed its deadline, but in reality, the city’s footpaths remain congested and inaccessible as before. Launched on April 18 last, under the strict directives from Municipal Commissioner Dr Vipin Itankar, the campaign aimed to reclaim pedestrian walkways and eliminate illegal street vending across all 10 municipal zones. However, the ground reality reflects a stark failure of sustained enforcement, as unauthorised hawkers consistently re-occupy footpaths within hours of eviction. Citizens and daily commuters express deep frustration, pointing out that the high-profile drive has yielded virtually no tangible results. Across major commercial corridors and residential areas, vendors continue to operate at the exact same spots and during the same hours. Pedestrians are routinely forced off footpaths and onto busy carriageways, aggravating traffic bottlenecks and heightening safety risks. While residents acknowledge that the NMC’s Enforcement Department maintained frequent presence in high-density pockets such as Sitabuldi, Mahal, and Gandhibag, these localised actions failed to deter vendors, who simply return as soon as NMC vehicles leave the scene.

 

According to the data received from the Enforcement Wing, the Department has seized a total of 336 stalls between April 15 and July 26. Speaking to ‘The Hitavada’, Sanjay Kamble,Assistant Commissioner, Enforcement Wing, said, “For the success of the mission, we intensified and conducted anti-encroachment drives daily.” He added the Department will continue to conduct drives across the city to provide walkable footpath to the pedestrians. Speaking on the issue, several street vendors stated that street market is an integral part of urban space and instead of AS TO issue of poor performance by door to door waste collection agencies, Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule called for cross verification and issued instructions about the same to NMC officials. He was responding to issue raised by Vikas Thakre, MLA, who said, despite indictment by NMC, the two companies, M/s AG Enviro and M/s BVG contract has not been terminated till date. Bawankule questioned the laxity of NMC officials in not registering offence against the two companies for shortcomings in their workings. Due to poor waste collection, the city ranking on swacchta is falling and asked for stringent steps to improve the same.