‘Include Wadi in NMC limits for better civic amenities’

Nagpur: Even though the locality comes under Nagpur Metro Region Development Authority (NMRDA) and is looked after by the Wadi Nagar Parishad, not only residents but council’s elected representatives also say they would like to become part of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). They feel the civic amenities in the city limits are better than those in Wadi, which shares boundary with the city.
According to Rahul Shinde, a resident of Dattawadi, residents were happy in 2014 when Wadi Gram Panchayat was upgraded to Nagar Parishad. “But our joy was short-lived as the upgrade has failed to improve amenities here. Instead they are deteriorating with every passing day,” said Manju Shirbhate, another resident.

Asmita Meshram, a BSP councillor, too admitted that becoming a Nagar Parishad has failed to upgrade the basic amenities. According to her, many housing colonies have come up in the area, thus increasing pressure on the council to provide better civic amenities.

“The BJP-Congress coalition in the council is not able to cope up with the burgeoning population,” she said. She cited the examples of Hudkeshwar and Narsala gram panchayats, which got a facelift after their inclusion in the NMC limits.

BJP councillor and former water committee chairman of Wadi Nagar Parishad, Kailash Manthapurwar, however, disagrees with Meshram. According to him, since upgrade to Nagar Parishad, the state government funding has increased manifold. “In the last four years, the council has received special state government grants of Rs45 crore,” he said and claimed that even Hingna MLA Sameer Meghe has succeeded in bringing Rs2,200 crore for carrying out development works in the assembly constituency.