Nagpur civic body ignoring illegal house

Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) razed a marriage hall on Manewada Road which was constructed in a residential area. However, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), its parallel agency, is not razing an unauthorized house since 1995, though several complaints have been lodged in this regard. Mansur Sharif, who resides near Nawabpura Masjid, has been running from pillar to post to get the unauthorized construction of his neighbour Ghanshyam Nakade razed for the last 23 years. Nakade had submitted his building plan to NMC in 1995 but it was rejected by deputy municipal commissioner. He then appealed before the municipal commissioner but did not succeed. NMC officials should have immediately served him a show cause notice asking him to demolish the structure but they did not do so. Nakade’s illegal house stands even today. Sharif continued to lodge complaints with NMC and state’s urban development department (UDD). The assistant director of town planning, NMC, in his letter to UDD, stated that Nakade had constructed the house without taking permission of the civic body. Nakade was issued a notice in September 2004 over the illegal construction. The house owner then submitted an amended building plan in February 2010 but it was rejected by NMC. The grounds were: The dimensions of the house and that mentioned in the map were different, the floor to space index (FSI) was more than permissible and the owner had not left margins on all side as required by development control rules (DCR). In the meantime, Sharif had filed a petition in Nagpur bench of Bombay high court. The HC in July 2015 directed NMC to investigate the matter and take appropriate action. However, NMC ignored this directive and spared Nakade. Sharif has again written to assistant commissioner of Lakadganj zone, urging him to raze Nakade’s house. Two weeks have passed but no action has been taken. Repeated calls to assistant commissioner Subhashchandra Jaideo went unanswered.