Sewage flowing into homes, north Nagpur residents storm NMC office

Nagpur: At a time when the civic administration is busy in preparations for the C20 summit commencing March 20 and entire west Nagpur is being decked up for the same, north Nagpur residents are fighting a health hazard as sewage water is entering many homes.
On Friday, around 200 residents from Samta Nagar, Kamgar Nagar, Rajgruha Nagar and Shende Nagar stormed the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) headquarters in Civil Lines and staged protest. Sadar police had to use force to drive away the agitated residents.
The police also detained some of the Youth Congress workers.
The residents were led by former Congress corporators Neha Nikose and Dinesh Yadav. They claimed that for NMC and government only west and south-west Nagpur are of importance. “No attention is paid to other parts of the city, let alone beautification,” they alleged.
Yadav, however, admitted that many residents have encroached the conservancy lines in almost all the areas, causing a major trouble for NMC’s public health engineering department in clearing blockages. According to him, the NMC’s Ashi Nagar zone had issued notices to property owners who have encroached the sewer line, but later did nothing.
Nikose pointed out that the North Nagpur residents too pay government taxes but they are getting-step motherly treatment when it comes to improving basic civic amenities.
According to her, basic civic amenities like pothole free roads, functioning street lights and good sewage network are a distant dream for residents of Samata Nagar, Kalpana Nagar, Sugat Nagar, Vishram Nagar and Angulimal Nagar. “The roads are in a very bad condition and street lights do not illuminate during the night,” she said.
Earlier, sewage water was overflowing on streets but now it has started entering houses. It is also contaminating drinking water and many are falling sick due to it. Also, cases of dengue too have increased manifold, as per Nikose.
The delegation met municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B who assured to resolve their problems without any delay.
Nikose also urged the commissioner to accelerate the process of providing house to house water connection in Samta Nagar without any delay. “Drinking water line has been laid at various places and still it has not reached some places due to which people have to wander for drinking water.
“The process of adding new connection at some places should be started soon. NMC should provide instalment facility to residents taking drinking water connection,” she said.