For over 4,500 residents of Savitribai Phule Nagar in East Nagpur, the wait for land rights continues — even after living on the same 14-acre stretch since the 1980s. Notified as a slum in 1991, this community remains in legal limbo, caught in a tangle of conflicting claims between government agencies. Despite paying property tax since 1987, residents are still labelled as encroachers, with no official recognition or security over their homes.
Documents accessed via the RTI Act reveal how bureaucratic confusion has stalled regularisation. The land, under mouza Babulkheda (khasra no. 10/3), has been mapped and re-mapped with inconsistent results. In 2019, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) appointed a private agency to conduct a survey, but only 149 houses were identified—far fewer than the 800+ structures visible on site. The survey was riddled with gaps, skipping entire lanes and selecting homes arbitrarily.
When NMC sent the data to the City Survey Office, it cleared only 98 houses and marked the rest as being on land owned by the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT). But NIT denied any ownership and rejected the findings. In a 2023 resurvey, 806 houses were finally recorded, yet NIT again claimed it had no 7/12 record for the land.
Adding to the confusion, NMC recently declared the land as private property — a move that complicates regularisation. But under state policy, all slums formed before 2011 — even on private land — are eligible for legalisation.
“This isn’t mismanagement — it’s systemic failure,” said Pritam Khadatkar, who is leading the residents’ legal efforts. A PIL is now being prepared, as families continue to fight for basic recognition, stability, and dignity — a right long overdue.
Savitribai Phule Nagar Land Title Crisis: Key Takeaways
Decades of Neglect Despite Legal Eligibility: Though Savitribai Phule Nagar was notified as a slum in 1991 and residents have paid property taxes since 1987, over 4,500 people still lack land titles due to a series of administrative contradictions and legal misclassifications.
Flawed and Contradictory Surveys: The initial 2019 survey listed just 149 houses, ignoring hundreds more. A later 2023 survey identified 806 structures, yet confusion persisted as agencies disagreed on ownership—City Survey cited NIT as owner, while NIT denied any land records or ownership.
Breakdown of Inter-Agency Coordination: Years of correspondence between NMC, NIT, and City Survey yielded no resolution, with missing or disputed land records (such as the 7/12 extract) compounding the legal uncertainty and halting any progress toward regularisation.
Rights Blocked by Misclassification: In a move that contradicts state policy allowing regularisation of pre-2011 slums—including those on private land—NMC recently declared the slum as private property, effectively stripping residents of their rights to ownership, loans, and legal protection.
👉 Click here to read the latest Gujarat news on TheLiveAhmedabad.com