Mayor proposes sale of Jabalpur Municipal Corporation building

JABALPUR: Advised to generate his own resources at last JNNURM review meeting in Delhi, city mayor Prabhat Sahu hit upon a novel idea. He drafted a proposal to sell off 5,60038 square feet of land housing the 120-year-old Jabalpur Municipal Corporation (JMC) building to private builders and had it hurriedly passed by the house on December 26.
The part of campus on sale incidentally also includes the mayor's residence.And as Congress corporators, staging a sit-in the house since that day, threaten to take the matter to the court, an unperturbed Sahu, whose move has left his own partymen and seniors red-faced, is busy giving final touches to the blueprint of a multiplex by changing the land used to "full commercial".
There is no other option to raise funds for the cash starved cooperation, Sahu declared. "We are required to dole out matching grant for a number of centrally-funded projects and this is a perfect solution".
Talking to TOI on Friday, Sahu dismissed the three-day-old dharna by opposition as a mere drama. "Former Congress mayor Vishvanath Dubey had floated the proposal 10 years ago but it was shelved as Dubey failed to strike a "deal" with the builder, he declared and blamed his detractors of duplicity. If they do it, it is a business venture, if I do it, it is corruption, he fumed.
The Congress corporators- 30 against 40 BJP corporators - are openly accusatory. Vinay Saxena, the leader of opposition in the house says "there are 10 spots owned by JMC which have been identified and brought on record by them. Two of then are adjacent to JMC. "However one near the city bust stand is now the unchallenged property of MLA and speaker of the state assembly Ishwardas rohani who parks his fleet of buses there. The other one near Jabalpur club is captured by minister for animal husbandry Ajay Vishnoi. and now Sahu is eyeing the JMC …" he alleged
Charging the mayor with underselling the prime property, Pankaj Pandey another Congress corporator said that in its feasibility report Crisil had assessed the value of the same land at Rs 155 crores a decade ago." The land price in the city is skyrocketing but, Sahu declared on the floor of the house that the proposed sale will yield Rs 155 crores. Either his maths is poor or worse" he said
Congress MLA Lakhan Ghanghoria emphasized that the calculated sell out defied logic. "This very month, 54 new villages have been included within the JMC limits. This means more visitors to the complex and further expansion. Mayor selling off the municipal corporation complex under the pretext of raising funds is just like the Prime Minister selling away the parliament to fill in the government coffers. The very idea is ludicrous."
Sahu is beyond caring. My job is to perform and their job is to create impediments he declared. Asked to comment on the Congressmen plan to seek judicial intervention the mayor chortled.. oh sure, he remarked "this is what courts are meant for."