Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) babus, it seems, are obsessed with ‘care two hoots attitude’ and dare to disregard a directive from none other than the Chief Minister of the State. The classic example of this ‘devil-may-care attitude’ is the ‘illegal’ construction of ‘Terrace View Restaurant’ building near Zenda Chowk in Dharampeth. Interestingly, the site is in close proximity of Chief Minister’s residence. The building is being constructed by sidelining the map sanctioned by NMC’s Town Planning Department. The original owners of the space, Joshi brothers, objected to the construction of the restaurant in the building and sent a letter to Chief Minister’s Office as well as Municipal Commissioner and demanded cancellation of licence of the restaurant.
In turn the Chief Minister’s Office, taking a serious view of the matter, forwarded the letter of Narhari Parmanand Joshi, the original owner of the space, to Municipal Commissioner with a note. The CMO letter asked the NMC boss to go through the objections of Joshi. The letter further pointed out that a hotel named ‘Terrace View Restaurant’ has been started in the Gokul Roshan building near Zenda Chowk, Dharampeth. The map of the said building is not sanctioned. Similarly, while constructing the building, additional construction was done. Therefore, Joshi has demanded immediate closure of the illegally constructed restaurant as well as removal of additional portion of construction in the building, the letter said.
The Chief Minister’s Office further directed the Municipal Commissioner to conduct proper enquiry into the matter and initiate necessary action. The letter, dated February 15, 2018, has been signed by Shashank Dabholkar, Private Secretary to the Chief Minister.
However, despite the directive from the Chief Minister’s Office, the thick-skinned babus of NMC have been found just sending notice after notice to the contractor instead of initiating solid action.
It may be recalled that recently the original owner of the land Narhari Parmanand Joshi had written a letter to Municipal Commissioner Ashwin Mudgal and informed him that he (Joshi) is joint owner of Zenda Chowk-based Gokul Roshan building. All the joint owners of the land had negotiated an agreement with a firm named Pankaj Construction Company for construction of Gokul Roshan building. Accordingly, the building was constructed. The director of the construction company Pankaj Roshan Dhavan had completed all the formalities such as necessary permissions, map sanctioning etc. However, the construction was done in defiance of sanctioned map. Complaints in this regard were made to Town Planning Department and Dharampeth Zone. In the meantime, the construction company moved an application with a revised map to the Town Planning Department for regularising the illegally constructed building, Joshi said in his letter.
Joshi had further informed the Municipal Commissioner that the Town Planning Department had, in 2015, disapproved the illegal constriction but still the builder Dhavan had not demolished the illegal additional construction. Moreover, the ‘Terrace View Restaurant’ was started in the building either on February 9 or 10, 2018. The restaurant is illegal as other joint owners were not taken confidence. Hence the proper action should be initiated against the illegal restaurant, Joshi had demanded.
