Nagpur Mayor Sandip Joshi starts process to denotify Itwari, Mahal as slums

NAGPUR: Mayor Sandip Joshi on Thursday directed Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) administration to start the process to de-notify Itwari, Mahal and areas alongside Central Avenue from the list of recognized slums of Nagpur city.
He gave the ruling after former mayor Pravin Datke raised the issue of rise of unauthorized constructions in Mahal despite serving notices under relevant sections of Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act and Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Authority.He also drew attention that on July 20, 2017, the house had decided to denotify slums where all basic amenities had been provided. “But even after two years, the administration has failed to take any decision,” Datke said.
TOI had highlighted that commercial areas such as Sitabuldi, Sadar, Mahal etc are still marked as slums in state government and NMC records, and continue to get backward class funds while actual slums are deprived of basic amenities.
Datke informed the house that there is no rule to take action against unauthorized constructions in notified slums. Since Mahal is still part of slum, many property owners take undue advantage of this rule and indulge in unauthorized constructions. Even new multi-storey commercial shops are coming up without any provision for parking spaces.
Since the administration had failed to denotify these areas despite development, corporators are utilizing backward class development funds, and residents are availing subsidized services.
As per NMC records, there are 484 slums across the city, of which 295 are notified where slum dwellers are entitled to subsidized services like drinking water and property tax.
Endorsing Datke, senior BJP corporator Dayashankar Tiwari too drew the attention of the house to similar situation in other notified slum areas like alongside Central Avenue and Itwari.
Datke also raised the issue of zonal offices issuing notices to unauthorized constructions under sections 52, 53 and 54 of MRTP Act, though most of the owners have obtained stay by appealing in urban development ministry.
Following this, mayor Joshi directed the civic administration to start the process to denotify developed areas like Mahal, Itwari, Central Avenue from the list of slums. He also asked all assistant municipal commissioners to submit action initiated against unauthorized constructions in their respective zones.