Nagpur Municipal Corporation School issue

Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) does it, there is none. NMC claims to have demolished a part of Mahatma Gandhi Centennial Sindhu High School (MGCSHS), Jaripatka, on Friday but strangely TOI did not find any signs of demolition.

The school is run by Deepak and Veena Bajaj, who are politically influential. Enforcement superintendent Maroti Ninawe told TOI that NMC had demolished a part of the upper slab (terrace) and front portion of the compound wall. He claimed that as the NMC enforcement department did not have machines it had to do the job manually. The job began in the afternoon and continued till about 6 pm.

The department would seek directions from municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta regarding further action. Strangely, when TOI photojournalist went to the spot, the school caretaker told him that some NMC staffers along with a cop had come to the school and left without doing anything in ten minutes.

TOI did not find any signs of demolition. Ninawe said that the owners had built the school building in violation of development control rules (DCR). In fact they had not submitted any building plan to the NMC's town planning department, which was mandatory.

NMC had issued a show cause notice to the school owners on January 29 under Sections 53 (1) and 54 of Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act. The nearby residents obtained a copy of the notice under right to information (RTI) Act. Bajajs soon submitted a building plan to the town planning department. However, the department found out that the 9,000 square feet construction was violating several norms and recommended that it should be demolished.

The municipal commissioner ordered the enforcement department to raze the building. An NMC officer said that the school had become nuisance for nearby residents as it caused daily traffic jams in the area. Secondly, the school was given on rent for functions and many times loudspeakers were used in night, which disturbed the sleep of locals.

Adv Rohit Laharwani had spearheaded a campaign against the school lodging several complaints with various authorities.