Chandrashekhar does a Thane in Nagpur too

Chandrashekhar does a Thane in Nagpur too
VIVEK DESHPANDE

NAGPUR, FEB 15: T Chandrashekhar has done his homework enough to get going at Nagpur. The ruthlessly no-nonsense bureaucrat, who did signal service for Thane as its municipal commissioner, has started cracking his whip to clean up the rotting system in Nagpur.

Last month, he incurred the wrath of city traders by issuing a huge advertisement in local newspapers on how they were benefiting from charging octroi on weight basis and not passing on the benefit to consumers. The traders' attempt to observe a bandh against his suggestion of ad valorem octroi on 17 items had miserably failed.

On Wednesday, the Nagpur Municipal Commissioner personally supervised the demolition of unauthorised constructions in the Zingabai Takli locality of the city. According to him, these houses were being built in the green zone belt of a Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) scheme. The drive was executed at a time when a scheme proposed by him to regularise the unauthorised layouts had just began. Launched on Tuesday, the scheme covers 572 of a staggering 2,772 unauthorised layouts which have come up mostly on the land under the jurisdiction of the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT). Incidentally, Chandrashekhar is also holding the charge as NIT chairman.

The scheme has received a huge response with over 5,000 forms being sold in the first two days. It is estimated to fetch NIT hundreds of crores. Local politicians too have welcomed it. Under it, the plot-holders are supposed to pay Rs 16 per sq ft towards regularisation. For the needy, loans at the reasonable interest rate of 10 per cent have also been made available.

Chandrashekhar said construction was continuing at the buildings pulled down on Wednesday despite a warning to stop it till regularisation was over. One of the builders, Bhimrao Patre, who bore the brunt has threatened to move court. He said, he was made to suffer a loss of Rs 20 lakh despite the 28-day deadline to stop work was yet to be over.

The Nagpur Improvement Trust is the only body of its kind in Maharashtra and perhaps in the entire country which is deemed a local body despite the existence of the real sovereign body, in this case the NMC. This has led to overlapping of purpose as also a heavily lop-sided flow of revenue in NIT's favour. It is believed that Chandrashekhar might preside over a possible merger of NIT with NMC, though he doesn't say it in so many words. The move to regularise unauthorised layouts is also seen as a step in that direction.