Nagpur: Tempers ran high and people were on the street for 5 hours on Sunday after some residents of Jaripatka south realized that their one access street to provisions’ was also going to be ‘walled’ by office bearers of the Dixit Nagar Residents’ Association’s office bearers themselves.
According to sources, Dikshit Nagar has a layout of 300 plots. It also has two public gardens established by NIT. This area also has a MHADA society and Mercury Villa society. The residents of Mercury society have to buy all their provisions from a shopping area that is near the main gate of Dikshit Nagar. But flouting all NIT regulations the Residents’ Assn. of Dikshit nagar had closed the gate and built a wall across the road last year.
Since then there has been a move to close the North access to the place also by removing the gate from there and building another wall. This would make the NIT gardens also out of bound for other societies of the area.
Many representations have been made by people who would be affected to NIT to stop construction of this wall. But no preventive action was taken.
On Sunday morning ( yesterday) the gate at this spot was shut and also padlocked. Bricks, sand and other building material was at the site already so that gate could be removed and construction of wall begun immediately.
Seeing this, agitated people got on the streets and began protesting. They demanded that the gate be opened. Hundreds of people had gathered by then but to no avail.
Someone then approached the police and informed about the happenings.
Probably it being a Sunday the police also turned a blind eye in the beginning. When crowds started swelling and making a lot of noise shouting slogans and threatening to turn violent too that finally the Jaripatka police intervened and reached the spot.
They spoke to people on both sides and avoided the altercation from spreading.
But the matter may again get heated today if NIT does not intercede.
