Land Robbery in Nagpur-'NMC has no mandate for London Street'-TIMES OF INDIA

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'NMC has no mandate for London Street'

TNN | May 21, 2011, 07.05am IST

Protection of Rights' founder-president Gopal Kondawar has written to top BJP leaders, including veteran L K Advani, apprising them of the `London Street' proposal. The BJP-controlled civic body wants to execute such outright commercial project on the home turf of its national president Nitin Gadkari, he said urging the party leadership to intervene in the matter. He has also written to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan requesting him to withhold permission to the `London Street' plan

NAGPUR: Lokadhikar Manch, a city-based organization fighting for people's rights, has raised serious doubts on the Nagpur Municipal Corporation's proposed plan to develop a vast stretch of 80-acre land on the famous 'London Street' model. Nitin Chaudhary of the Manch said the NMC has no mandate to carry out such elitist projects. 

In a statement, Chaudhary said the NMC got the land from the defence department by paying Rs 3.29 crore. But it is seeking to turn it into a glitzy, real estate paradise that would bring huge profits to few private investors who would bag the project on BOT basis. "It's an anti-people project and all elected representatives of the civic body should oppose it," he stated. 

"In a welfare state, a civic body is expected to function as a local government wedded to social causes. How can it come out with such money-spinning schemes with an eye only on the high-earning groups and totally ignoring the masses," Chaudhary wondered. "Ironically, the BJP which claims to be a nationalist party is trying to revive imperialistic designs through the NMC that it controls by promoting the London Street," remarked Chaudhary. 

Joining him in opposing the NMC plan, NCP corporator and leader of the party in the civic house Vedprakash Arya said that he would be looking into the fresh plans sent to the government and register his protest. "I will requisition the file and take up the matter with the party leaders to see that such grandiose plans without any legal sanction never materialize," Arya told TOI. He said if the state has given an alternative land to the defence department, there was no way it would approve such commercial plans on government land handed over to the NMC. 

Meanwhile, Centre for Protection of Rights' founder-president Gopal Kondawar has written to top BJP leaders, including veteran L K Advani, apprising them of the `London Street' proposal. The BJP-controlled civic body wants to execute such outright commercial project on the home turf of its national president Nitin Gadkari, he said urging the party leadership to intervene in the matter. He has also written to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan requesting him to withhold permission to the `London Street' plan. 

"It involves mind-blogging sums of money as nearly one crore sq ft of construction will be done to be sold at market rates to make over Rs 1000 crore in profits," he alleged.