Taking note of dissatisfaction among traders due to hefty increase in lease rent of shops, Guardian Minister Dr Nitin Raut, on Monday, directed civic administration to find a middle way out and resolve the matter within next fortnight. The Minister’s directive came during a meeting with local officials at District Collectorate to discuss pressing matters. As per interpretation of the new rules issued by Urban Development Department (UDD), Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) issued notices for lease renewal wherein revision is on quite higher side. Due to this hefty increase, traders have not applied for renewal of lease and that has led to fall in revenue for civic body. The meeting was also attended by MLAs Ashish Jaiswal and Raju Parwe, Collector R Vimala, Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B, Additional Commissioners Deepak Kumar Meena and Ram Joshi and various department heads. Merchants own a number of strategic locations in the civic area since pre-independence times. The rent of these shops, which are the main source of income of the corporation, has been increased wherein the formula of linking it to Ready Reckoner rates is adopted resulting in hefty increase.

 

However, many traders are unhappy in this regard and the NMC Market Federation, which works as an association of traders, raised its concerns with the Guardian Minister. Traders said that they had already suffered huge losses in aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic so the increased lease amount should be reduced. The Guardian Minister directed the Additional Commissioner to work out a mutually agreed settlement within a fortnight by finding a suitable alternative between the demands of the traders and the rental rates of the administration. During a meeting held on Monday, there was a discussion regarding the health card to be implemented by the NMC and the District Administration as well as the survey of high risk disease (comorbid) citizens. He directed to take forward both these projects by bringing co-ordination as per the instructions of Central and State Governments. District Surgeon Dr D V Paturkar, District Health Officer Dr D S Selokar along with officials of the NMC’s Health Department were present. Last week, the Guardian Minister inaugurated water tanks in many parts of city to extend coverage of drinking water supply.

 

He said there were complaints about water supply in many parts and pointed out that the leakage in some places have not been plugged as yet. NMC’s Executive Engineer Shweta Banerjee assured that water supply in Nara and Wanjara areas would be restored by next week. In today’s meeting, a delegation of NMC’s employees also met Guardian Minister. Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B stated that all the issues of the delegation have been answered satisfactorily. The employees were paid one month's salary before Diwali. He also said that dearness allowance was also given. Apart from this pending issues of old booksellers at Sitabuldi were also discussed. In this regard, the issue of allotment of sites by Metro was discussed in the last meeting.