NAGPUR: The construction of the much-anticipated regional sub centre of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in South Nagpur (in Wathoda and Tarodi) has hit a roadblock. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has given advance possession of the 6.76 acre private land – which is a part of the 87.23 acre land – to SAI for its regional sub centre. The goof-up has further delayed the ongoing SAI project indefinitely. The NMC’s property tax department submitted a proposal before the general body meeting to be held on May 28 for measurement and acquiring land for SAI. In the past, the civic body had handed over 140.25 acres of land to SAI, which also had the state government’s approval. It came to the fore that of the total land allocated to SAI, almost 60 acres was occupied by residential localities. So, it was decided to hand over only the vacant land of Wathoda and Tarodi localities for SAI’s project, which is around 87 acres. According to sources in the estate department, the NMC had given advance possession of 13.18 acre in Wathoda to SAI. Here, all the land was owned by the civic body. However, in Tarodi, where it gave 74.05 acres in advance to SAI, it was found that the land was owned by different people at five places. Sources asked as to how did the NMC give advance possession of land to SAI. Earlier too it made the same mistake. Initially, some portion of the land in both areas was reserved by the Nagpur Improvement Trust for garbage disposal but NIT could not implement the scheme for 40 years. Under the land acquisition rules, if the government failed to implement any scheme for 10 years, the land must be returned to its original owners, but this did not happen. Since 1961, the government has not mutated the name of NMC on the 7/12 extracts. So, the original owners, through societies, sold the plots. Apart from the protest by project-affected people, the civic body had also witnessed opposition from elected representatives like BJP MLA Krishna Khopde and Congress MLC Abhijit Wanjari among others, which led the NMC and state government to reduce the land allotment to SAI and also shift its location. Presently, hundreds of concrete houses have come up in 5.28 acres in Tarodi. Like in the past, the NMC will face hurdles and stiff opposition from the affected residents in getting possession of the land. Sources said the NMC will acquire the required land and will ensure the project gets started at the earliest.
Nagpur: Civic body goofs up, hands over 6.7 acre land it did not own to SAI
