An unusual incident occurred in Maharana Pratap Ward's Navnivesh Colony on Sunday night. A man claimed ownership of a land near a nullah and abruptly closed the big drain overnight by dumping gravel into it. Upon receiving a complaint from the ward Corporator, senior officials from the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation arrived at the scene and with the help of the JCB, cleared the encroachment. According to the information received, the main nullah in Maharana Pratap Ward's Navnivesh Colony, Ganganagar, which is the main source of flushing waste water of the locality for the past forty years, was suddenly filled with gravel by an affluent person on Sunday. The person claimed that the land belonged to him. When asked to provide documents as proof, he failed to produce any supporting document.

 

This information was reported to Municipal Commissioner, Preeti Yadav, Building Officer Ajay Sharma, Encroachment Branch In-charge Sagar Borkar and SHO Sanjivani Nagar Police Station. Local residents expressed concern that if the drain remained closed, their homes would be flooded with dirty water. Despite the complaint, no official reached the site for about 4 to 5 hours. Later, Divisional Officer of JMC, Krishna Pal Rawat reached the site and got the nullah cleared with the help of a JCB. The action brought relief to the residents. People say that it is due to the inaction of municipal officials that anyone can take over public property without consequences.