NAGPUR: Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari responds to points raised by TOI Debate panellists about civic issues and shares his vision for the city.
All panellists held the view that potholed roads get a makeover only during election year.
We have to look at this in a holistic manner. The last two years saw every government organ — from the civic bodies to the state right up to the Centre — focus all their resources in fighting the pandemic. As saving lives and curbing the spread of infection became a priority, road construction and maintenance did not get the attention they naturally would have. We witnessed a devastating second wave which took a long time for the city to recover from, but now that things are slowly getting back to normal, road works have restarted. We have made fast progress in ensuring that roads become pothole-free and very soon all roads under NMC’s jurisdiction shall be repaired.
Another concern was whether we really needed cement roads, more specifically from an environmental point of view.
We certainly do. People ask how rainwater will seep in and for this, stormwater drains have been built on the side of the road, so there won’t be any waterlogging. Secondly, trees have been planted on the median and are being maintained. Many citizens say the height of road gets raised, but few know that a similar thing happens with tar roads as layer upon layer is added. I saw a tar road in Nagpur itself which had been stripped to reach a chamber below, and the tar layer was 3.5 feet deep. Also, by using tar we are using natural resources more often as tar roads require more maintenance, whereas cement roads can last for decades.
24x7 water is a promise which still has not been fulfilled in entire city.
When we had started this project, the population of Nagpur city was different than now. Every year the situation is getting better and we are getting closer to our goal of 24x7 water supply. NMC has stopped 197 water tankers, which means drinking water is reaching people on time. More areas are getting covered under the water supply network and that’s proof of progress.
Garbage collection agencies get fined, changed. Are they not doing a proper job or has NMC failed to get the work done?
We were not satisfied with the way things were being done. Qualitative changes are required and the agency that gets the tender must implement them. We have studied the Indore model and will try the zone-level segregation centres format. Also, this work can never be a success without participation of citizens. Who throws garbage on streets? NMC employees don’t, citizens do. We all have to come together and take the clean Nagpur initiative further.
There was a time when Nagpur was counted among the top two or three greenest cities in India. Has environment not been a priority for corporators? Are we too optimistic in assuming it will be part of the election agenda someday?
Every politician will have to deliver what the citizens want. The day citizens decide that environment is a priority for them, all politicians, regardless of the party they belong to, will be forced to toe that line. NMC has undertaken various green initiatives. We are developing a fragrance garden, we maintain many public gardens and also the vegetation you see on road medians is scientifically thought of. Field experts advise us on the steps we should take to safeguard environment.
Financial crunch at NMC is now public knowledge, and some panellists pointed out that there are a couple of lakhs of unassessed properties
I don’t think the quantum is that high. There are some unassessed properties but they are under our radar. Legal issues in assessing the properties arise from the entire layout being illegal. We find that a builder illegally sold a layout to someone, then that person sold it to another one and the chain goes on. The original seller is missing and current occupants had no idea about the legal status of that land. This is one of the many technical challenges. However, the number is not even one lakh. Citizens should inform us about such properties.
