The Times of India 05.09.2012
Sloppy rehab plan leaves slumfolk in dire straits
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.
Superintending engineer of the NMC's Public Works Department, Sunil
Khune, while agreeing that land acquisition was a problem and delayed
the completion of the housing scheme, he said that the work was in good
progress now and would be completed by the stipulated time.The
contractors appeal that the NMC should first acquire land and then give
the contract to make things easy for them, the contractors and the
people concerned.
