Navi Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has assured to open the newly built Swami Vivekananda Cultural Bhavan at sector 14-15 in Vashi within a month after social activist Pradip Waghmare observed hunger strike on Monday.
The three-storeyed centre was built prior to the Covid pandemic but could not be opened due to several lockdowns. Even though restrictions have long been lifted and all services are open to the public, the centre hasn’t opened.
Vashi culture venue turned godown
Waghmare said the centre has auditoriums and people can also organise family and wedding functions. However, it has been turned into a godown to store uniforms for doctors and nurses, mattresses, Covid kits and pill boxes, he said, adding that the residents of Vashi have to shell out lakhs of rupees to rent hotels for weddings when a low-cost centre is lying idle.
Waghmare, who is the president of Swablambi Samajik Sevabhavi Sanstha, said he had written to civic chief Rajesh Narvekar to open the building before April 24 or else he would sit on hunger strike.
“A number of NMMC officials have visited me and sought some more time to open the building. I asked them to give me a written assurance and they agreed,” said Waghmare. A senior civic official said that the civic body is already working to open the centre.
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