Nagpur: The proposed “Khau Galli” (Treat Street or Food Street or Snacks Lane) to be set up at the shores of “suicide prone” Shukrawari Talao (Gandhisagar) on the lines of Indore has got embroiled in controversy even before a single delicacy could be served to customers. Nagpur Municipal Corporation is set to start the “Khau Galli” by the end of this month at the place currently dotted by wandering poor people who use the water for bathing and washing clothes. The place is also “abode” of shelterless souls.
The “Khau Galli” at Shukrawari Talao is the brainchild of Standing Committee Chairman Sudhir Raut who is caterer by profession and a member of Wada-based “Kitchen Cabinet.” With this “reputation” Raut has extended an open invitation to his favourite establishments to set up stalls in dozens. Raut has been catering to marriages, parties and at several other occasions with the delicacies provided by a few select establishments since years. With this tactic, Raut has “debarred” other interested parties from setting up stalls at the proposed “Khau Galli” in more ways than one.
Earlier, the Bhonsale-era Shukrawari Talao was being used for many a good things. But the past decade or so has turned the lake a stinking water body with garbage and waste littered all over. A spate of suicides over the period has also turned it a favourite spot for those who desired to say good-bye to this world in fatal manner. The variety of fishes are choked to death in thousands at one go due to lack of oxygen annihilated by a heaps of toxic filth. The atmosphere in and around the historic lake stinks.
Recently, chief of Modi Foundation Mahesh Dayavan, on a visit to city, captured the sorry state of affairs in his camera and flashed the nasty images to the concerned departments of State Government. The NMC, for the sake of action, went on a cleanliness drive and lifted the waste from the lake in 2-3 trucks. But the situation as it is, now. It would not be a surprise if the “Khau Galli” is wounded up even before food lovers line up to relish delicacies at slew of stalls.
The local residents also smell a rat in establishing of the “Khau Galli” just near Empress City. It could be a “ploy” on the part of NMC to present a gift to hundreds of residents of this elite colony in the form of mouth-watering delicacies at their doorsteps.
The proposed “Khau Galli” is likely to hit the spot by the end of November. But before that, cleaning of Shukrawari Talao is must on the lines of a Hyderabad Lake. A foreign company had turned this Hyderabad lake a sparkling body of water. The Shukrawari Talao should be rid of garbage, sewage that is being dumped in the lake in monstrous magnitude.
–Rajeev Ranjan Kushwaha (rajeev.nagpurtoday@gmail.com)
