Apropos the article entitled ‘May Nagpur become an ideal of local democracy’ by Editor Vijay Phanshikar published in the popular ‘Footlloose’ column in ‘The Hitavada’ dated July 2 throws light on how Nagpur city is being managed by corporators who were elected by public for the city’s welfare. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) elections were held in the month of January and 102 corporators were appointed to look after different wards of Nagpur so that citizens can enjoy garbage free environment with good roads free from potholes and clean drainage as well as well-maintained garden. The aim of electing the corporators was to bring Nagpur city on the country map and look like Singapore as said by our leaders in one of their public speeches. However, the corporators for first two months were busy in their felicitation by public and recently went to Goa for some training but did not do anything to improve the condition of their respective Prabhag before onset of monsoon.

 

I would like to point out towards Prabhag 13 which has areas like Ambazari Layout, Verma Layout, Daga Layout, Abhyankar Nagar, Madhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Shivajinagar, Hill Road, Ramnagar, Pandrabodi are not managed in terms of garden, playground, roads, drainage and garbage cleanliness. The Naag nullah still poses a threat of flooding the areas in Prabhag 13. The one km road from LAD Square to Bajaj Nagar issue has been raised by ‘The Hitavada’ but it is still incomplete and footpaths wider than roads look like made to accomodate vendors. I have not seen corporators visiting the Abhyankar NMC garden to improve which is visited by hundreds of citizens everyday and the cement road in Madhavnagar is still not complete before monsoon causing hardships to senior citizens. There is no doubt that there is 43 per cent rise in complaints from January to May as mentioned by Editor Vijay Phanshikar as the corporators are not holding Janta Darbar to hear the grievances of citizens in their wards.