MLA Thakre Seeks Action Against 13 Officials for Illegal Building Approval
A major scam has come to light in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) Town Planning Department, where civic engineers allegedly granted illegal permission for a multi-storey commercial-cum-hospital complex on a Nazul plot leased strictly for residential use.
Congress city president and MLA Vikas Thakre accused civic officials of manipulating records and FSI (Floor Space Index) to benefit a private builder. He also alleged that NMC Administrator Dr. Abhijeet Chaudhari protected the erring engineers despite clear legal violations.
According to Thakre, the Nazul Department had leased a 1,622.9 sq. m. plot (No. 26/1) in Dhantoli to the Sumbh family for residential use. Cricketer Ashok Bhagwat later bought 789 sq. m. of the land and built a residential project in 1988. However, in 2021, NMC engineers approved plans for an eight-storey (39.52 m) hospital and commercial building on the remaining portion of the same plot, in the name of builder Sanjeev Sharma, who held the family’s power of attorney.
Despite a legal opinion by senior advocate S.K. Mishra confirming that such approval violated lease conditions, NMC went ahead with the permission. Complaints filed by Lt. Col. Anant Bhagwat since 2014 were ignored, and in 2023, officials even issued a partial occupancy certificate for the illegal structure.
Calling it a clear case of corruption, Thakre demanded a high-level inquiry into all approvals granted during Dr. Chaudhari’s tenure and urged Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis to take strict action against 13 implicated officials.
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