Nanded: The selection of the 15th mayor of the Nanded Waghala City Municipal Corporation (NWCMC) is scheduled for Tuesday, and the new mayor will be from the BJP. However, the civic body is yet to provide an official residence for the post.
The NWCMC was established 30 years ago, and it has been 75 years since the formation of the Nanded Municipal Council in 1952. Despite this long history, the city’s mayor has not been allotted an official residence over the past 75 years.
Eminent leaders, from Shankarrao Chavan to Narendrapal Barara, served as mayors of the city, but none were provided an official mayor’s residence, and all stayed in their own houses. In the initial years, some did not even have telephone facilities at home. It is also known that Chavan used a bicycle to travel to court despite holding the mayor’s post.
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In 1996, the Nanded and Waghala municipal councils were merged to form the municipal corporation. Sudhakar Panchare of the Shiv Sena became mayor. The old bungalow near the women’s hospital was renovated, and some mayors stayed there for a brief period. Later, a senior officer took charge of the bungalow and occupied it for a long time, following which the location of the mayor’s residence gradually faded from public memory.
It has now been 29 years since the establishment of the corporation, and six elections have been held so far. Still, the mayor, the municipal commissioner and the additional commissioner do not have permanent official residences in the city.
In other cities across the state, mayors and senior administrative officers have separate bungalows. In Nanded, the municipal commissioner has been allotted a bungalow in Snehnagar Colony, but there is still no permanent residence for the mayor.
The new mayor, Kavita Santosh Muley, will take charge on Tuesday. The administration has arranged a vehicle and a driver for her. She currently resides in Taroda. The mayor’s cell at the corporation has been decorated, but the municipal commissioner has stated that the issue of the mayor’s residence has not yet been taken up by the administration.
The Congress party was in power in the corporation for a longer period between 1999 and 2014, but it did not pay attention to the issue of the mayor’s residence. The BJP has now taken over, and it remains to be seen whether the city’s mayor will finally get an official home or whether it will continue to remain a dream.
