Nagpur News.
The efforts from various corners to preserve and maintain Nag river has been blatantly marred by the newly cropped by Central Mall on North Ambazari road. The mall authorities have brazenly violated its expansion limits and encroached upon the edges of Nag river, overlooking the concerns of Nagpur Municipal Corporation, State and Central Government along with the hordes of citizens towards the ignored river.
The Divisional Commissioner, taking a serious note of the encroachment by the Central Mall and at many other places of the river, had set up a probe committee but its report, it appears, has been lying in cold storage. The encroachments water down the very purpose of keeping the Nag Nadi clean as pollution of the river comes automatically with the encroachments.
The Central Mall has been constructed on the NIT land on North Ambazari Road on PPP basis. However, construction of some parts of the mall has been done at the place meant for footpath right over the Nag Nadi. Interestingly, the illegal construction is in front of NIT Chairman’s official residence.
Central Mall Nagpur
NIT tries to protect offender?
The NIT has served a notice to Central Mall under Section 51(1) of MRTP Act directing it to demolish the encroached structure. Moreover, no occupancy certificate was sought from the concerned authorities before starting the Mall. Fire Brigade has also not issued compliance certificate following no possession certificate taken by the Mall. While the construction of Central Mall was undergoing, the beautification of footpath in front it was done illegally. Similarly, some structures were erected upon the shores of Nag Nadi. The NMC Commissioner had noticed the encroachment during the “Mission Nad Nadi Cleaning” and subsequently he had ordered issuance of notice to the Mall. But since the project was under the NIT, no notice was served by the NMC.
Officials’ role suspicious
The Nag Nadi has been notified. The river is glory of the city and the name Nagpur has been named after the Nag Nadi. Today the River is polluted and the NMC, State Government and Central Government have been making efforts to bring back its glory. The NMC has sent a Rs 1,339 crore proposal to Central Government for cleaning the river which is likely to be sanctioned soon. However, the Central Mall did not care the efforts of cleaning the river and encroached upon some part of it by erecting structures on it. Most disturbing is the fact that NIT did not object to the encroachment during the construction of the Central Mall thus raising questions over role of the NIT officials.
