In a stunning example of civic apathy, residents of Nagpur’s Binaki–Mehandi Bagh area have launched a hunger strike — not for jobs or subsidies, but for their road. The protest, unfolding in the heart of the city, exposes how a poorly planned flyover by PWD Division No. 1 has literally severed an entire neighbourhood, trapping hundreds of families behind concrete walls.
The Mehandi Bagh flyover’s extended arm slices through the original Kamal Square–Binaki road. What was once a 25-metre-wide corridor has now shrunk into a one-metre-wide gully — too narrow even for cars. The so-called “underpass” below the flyover has absurdly low clearance, forcing residents to drive against traffic alongside the structure — a daily, life-threatening gamble in a city flaunting its “Smart City” tag.
“The government took away our road and gave us a dead end,” said Rakesh Sahadev Godi, president of the Binaki Pulia Sudhar Samiti, who is leading the indefinite fast. “We are not begging for welfare. We’re fasting because the administration erased our only access.”
The hunger strike, which began on October 14, has become a symbol of bureaucratic neglect. Despite repeated appeals to Union minister Nitin Gadkari and MLA Dr. Nitin Raut, no official has intervened. Executive engineer Laxmikant Raulkar of PWD Division No. 1 remained unavailable for comment.
Residents accuse PWD and NMC of abandoning the area to encroachments and civic decay. Their demand is blunt and powerful: “If Sadar gets redesigns, why can’t Binaki?” said Godi. “We just want our road back — nothing more, nothing less.”
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