As part of the pre-poll exercise, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) completed another leg on Tuesday, of hearing the objections on notification about the Prabhag, in respect of its boundaries. Civic officials, under watchful eyes of Sharavan Hardikar, Managing Director, Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), held marathon sitting to hear the objectors. Of the 115 individuals who had submitted their objections, almost 90 turned up in person at NMC Headquarters to explain in detail the fault with constitution of Prabhag, as to either exclusion of inclusion of some localities. Now, NMC has time till September 15 to finalise its response to objections and submit its draft to Urban Development Department (UDD).

 

As per the procedure, the civic body officials have to record in details the reason for accepting of rejecting the objection in respect of Prabhag boundaries. After studying the same, the draft would then be forwarded to State Election Commission. Thereafter, the final map of Prabhag boundaries, with corrections, if any, would be forwarded to State Election Commission. Hardikar was nominated by UDD to supervise the exercise of hearing the objections. State had nominated an officer of rank of Principal Secretary to each of he Municipal Corporation for this particular exercise. The objections were divided into four categories, namely, 60 were about unjust changes in the Prabhag boundaries; 16 about electoral list and Assembly segment mismatch, 25 about missing names of localities in the Prabhag list and 7 about reservations.

 

The Prabhag draft was published by NMC on August 23 and objections were invited till September 4. During the hearing, Municipal Commissioner Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari; Additional Municipal Commissioner Vaishnavi B; Deputy Commissioners Vijaya Bankar and Milind Meshram; along with Deputy Director, Town Planning, Girish Godbole; Executive Engineer Sunil Uikey and Ritesh Lokhande were present at the hearing. The entire process was videographed even as NMC officials jotted down the details listed by people as to their objections. A cursory glance of the data shared by NMC revealed that objections were received on almost all 38 Prabhags. In some instances, some people submitted combined application as to their objections.

 

Notable among them were Krishna Khopde, Prakash Bhoyar, Vijay alias Pintu Zalke, Avinash Thakre, all from BJP; Abhijeet Wanjari from Congress, and others. Maximum objections were filed on Prabhag 16, one represented by Bunty Kukde. Some individuals objected to 4-member Prabhag system saying same goes against established democratic norms. They pointed out as per Constitutional arrangement, India has adult franchise, one vote for each person on attaining age of 18 years. But with multi-member Prabhag system, a citizen has to cast 4 votes, which is against the tenets of democracy, they contended. Other ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader including Bunty Kukde, ex-President, Nagpur City Unit, objected to redrawing of the Prabahgs wherein he felt aggrieved. Kukde objection was related to shifting of his Prabhag, the one in which he had won on previous occasion, from Lakadganj Zone to Satranjipura Zone. The process that started at 11 am continued till 6.30 pm.

 

Arrangement was made by NMC in the waiting arena for people till their name was called for hearing that was conducted in Municipal Commissioner’s meeting hall at New Administrative Building, NMC Headquarters, Civil Lines. A second rung of officials including Assistant Commissioner Shyam Kapse; Rajkumar Meshram, Superintendent, GAD; Anant Nagmote, Anand Warhadpande, Sagar Pawar, Makrand Satpute, Kishor Moglewar and Jeevraj Kale, all from Election Branch, NMC, handled the process of screening of objections for the core team inside.