Nagpur: In an unusual political move, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appointed West Nagpur MLA Sudhakar Deshmukh as the Trustee of Nagpur Improvement Trust. With the surprise appointment of Sudhakar Deshmukh, a confidant of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, as NIT Trustee, the West Nagpur now hosts two Trustees. Earlier, from the Corporators’ quota, Bhushan Shingane was appointed on the coveted post.
Appointment of two leaders from the same Assembly constituency has sparked heated debate among political circles. The move, it seems, has also not gone down well with BJP cadres in city as well as district.
It is pertinent to recall that five people’s representatives are appointed to the NIT as trustees. Out of these five appointments, two are made by Nagpur Municipal Corporation – one Corporator and the second is ex-officio Chairman of Standing Committee. Similarly, the State Government appoints three trustees. However, since the three posts were not filled up since the past one year, it was assumed that NIT could be dissolved as was the demand of BJP. The party was demanding dissolution of NIT with the argument that only one development agency should exist in city and that is NMC. However, in a sudden as well as surprising move, the West Nagpur MLA Sudhakar Deshmukh was appointed NIT Trustee. Speculations were rife that North Nagpur MLA Dr Minild Mane could win the race. But now, names of Vicky Kukreja and Avinash Thakre are doing rounds for the posts from North and South Nagpur respectively.
However, politics is a different ballgame and guesses and speculations sometimes go abysmally wrong and sometimes hit the target.
