Vidarbha Taxpayers' Association appeals to NMC to repair roads urgently

NAGPUR: Following deterioration of city roads, Vidarbha Taxpayers' Association (VTA) submitted a memorandum to Municipal Commissioner Shyam Wardhane demanding improvement of civic infrastructure at the earliest.
President of VTA J P Sharma said that in early 2000s Nagpur city had become popular for its excellent roads. "Unfortunately, after this monsoon season, Nagpur is being ridiculed for having extremely bad roads, which are causing accidents.I fear this may prove fatal some day and then we may regret why we didn't take essential steps in time," he said.
Tejinder Singh Renu, secretary of VTA, said, "I had been trying to obtain appointment of municipal commissioner for a meeting of VTA delegation since September via SMSes. I even contacted his PA to schedule a meeting on the matter. However, for reasons best known to them, there was no response from the municipal commissioner's office."
The association also expressed concern over crisis of funds in the NMC. Renu said, without proper study and survey the state government imposed the local body tax due to which the NMC is incurring huge losses and do not have funds to repair accident-prone roads. "It is observed that painting of roads and other related repairs are going on to enhance the city's looks, but they forgot that roads form an essential requirement. Given the condition of city roads, appropriate action should be initiated by NMC on a priority basis," he added.
VTA appealed to the municipal commissioner to give preference to roads with heavy traffic and the damaged ones instead of catering only to VIP roads in the wake of upcoming winter assembly.