Nashik: The slum rehabilitation scheme under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) at Ganjamal is way past its deadline for completion. While, to be completed well after the deadline.the contractor said that it acquired the site to begin work got that they got the site only recently, the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has extended the date of completion.The beneficiaries, in the meanwhile, have been living in a sorry state at the transit camp, with the most glaring difficulty being the absence of a drainage system.

 

Open gutters that start at residents' doorsteps, not only emanate a stink but are also a breeding ground for mosquitoes."No civic official visited our camp since we were shifted here. We are contemplating a protest march to the district collector's officeon September 5We are living in very bad conditions with no proper system for drainage or for collecting garbage. This is health hazard," said Ranuji Gaikwad, a resident. "You can see the dirty water in front of our housesThere are children in every house, it is very unhygienic for them," said another resident Rukmini Ghaitadak.The NMC had proposed six buildings, each with 80 flats. taking the total tenements to 460. "But locals people there created land acquisition problems, so the NMC has now decided to construct only one building," said Sanjay Patkar of Pawar-Patkar Constructions, the contractor for the housing scheme."We got the site on our place at the transit camp on April 9 this year, after which we had to remove the electric poles and clean the land to prepare it for construction.

 

We were given the location got the location place much after the completion deadline. The work order was given to us on March 18, 2010 and we had to complete the work by March 17, 2012," Patkar said. The date for completion has now been extended to December 31, 2013 by the NMC. the general body meeting on January 2, 2012.The contractor said that after the transit camp was created, the NMC requested the company to also them to provide equip the site them with electricity. "We transferred old meters to the new place and wrote letter to the MSEDCL for power supply. We also paid Rs 5.97 lakh on behalf of the beneficiaries, who had not paid their electricity bills for a year," said Patkar. Last month, local corporators Sufi Jin (NCP) and Sameena Memon (Congress) visited the site and reviewed the issue with municipal commissioner Sanajy Khandare thereafter. showed a power point presentation to the municipal commissioner on the issue. Sanjay Khandare.

 

"From two years onwards the housing scheme has been on a standstill. The transit camp is in a very pitiable condition and people are forced to stay there till the housing scheme is completed. They should at least get proper facilities. We have shown it to the municipal commissioner and he said he would look into the matter," said Sufi Jin.