But, the biggest and the most prestigious event was G20 Civil20 Inception Meet. The guests from across the world descended on Nagpur. For them, the city was decked up. Some new beauty spots came up. The Nagpurians were amazed at the massive scale of investment made in decking up the city. Sadly, after the mega event, there was no evidence that the powers that be and the authorities looking after the city’s development and liveability had drawn some ideas from the expressions of the visiting dignitaries. Culturally, the city continued to shine brightly. Apart from the star performers enthralling the Nagpurians at the annual Khasdar Sanskrutik Mahotsav, the city witnessed State-level Drama Competition, lectures by authors of eminence, Vidarbha Literary Festival, music concerts and what not! After a kind of hiatus during COVID-19 pandemic years, the city became vibrant once again. President of India Smt Droupadi Murmu also visited the city and the region twice in the year, since taking charge of her office. In July, she graced the inaugural function of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Cultural Centre at Koradi. This marked the beginning of a chapter in emergence of Koradi as a cultural tourism centre. In December, she visited Nagpur again, to grace the 111th convocation ceremony of RTMNU and inauguration of Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Government Medical College and Hospital.

 

 

 

 

During the year, in August, Vice-President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar also graced the centenary celebrations of RTMNU and addressed the Officer Trainees of Indian Revenue Service at the National Academy for Direct Taxes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already addressed the inaugural ceremony of the Indian Science Congress in January. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also visited Smruti Mandir in Reshimbagh and Deekshabhoomi. Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, and other leaders also visited Nagpur and the region. The visits of all these dignitaries underline the increasing importance being attached to Nagpur. As far as political scene was concerned, the biggest disappointment was that the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) continued to remain without an elected body throughout the year. Since the ordinary citizens cannot go to higher administrative authorities every now and then for redressal of their grievances often restricted to various areas of the city, the presence of corporators is necessary in any big city. But, like all other municipal corporations, the elections to NMC also were not announced. Whether the elections are held before the State Legislative Assembly polls in 2024, remains to be seen.

 

Another major political development was conviction of Congress MLA Sunil Kedar in 21-years-old Nagpur District Central Co-operative Bank (NDCCB) scam case. Within a short period of his conviction by the Sessions Court, the Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Adv Rahul Narwekar disqualified him. After spending a few days at hospital due to ill health, Kedar was discharged and sent to jail. The city continued to witness several other political developments and meetings. But, the biggest one of the year was Congress party holding its 139th foundation day event at Nagpur in a bid to revive its falling political fortunes from Vidarbha region that had came to its support in the past. Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi skipped the meet, but Rahul Gandhi and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge did attend it. Though a galaxy of leaders of Congress party were present at the meeting, the speeches made amounted to ‘nothing extraordinary’. How far the meeting helps Congress to consolidate its base in the region, will be clear during the Lok Sabha elections scheduled in 2024. Because, though Congress brought its big leaders once, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been maintaining ground level connect with own party workers as well as with people. Already, BJP has been in election mode, working out details of its outreach strategy right up to booth level.

 

More and more infrastructure projects were announced to rid the city of traffic snarls. But, in sharp contrast, the traffic congestion increased! Whenever, including during the annual Winter Session of State Legislature, the city tried to accomodate increase in number of vehicles and visitors in big numbers from outside, traffic jams became a routine. Wrong-side driving and riding has assumed pandemic proportions. Haphazard parking, not following traffic lanes, bad roads, bad ramps joining elevated cement roads with tar roads at lower gradient, encroachments on footpaths, and such problems just worsened the scenario. At places like the road passing from under the Freedom Park Metro Station, one can get an evidence of bad urban infrastructure planning. The element of faulty urban planning and lack of preparedness of the city to face any eventuality became a matter of hot public debate in September when the heavy downpour led to floods in Ambazari, and water gushed into several houses along the Nag river. Many people lost savings of their life invested in furniture and other belongings in their houses, due to flood water and silt that got deposited with it. Later on, the State Government announced compensation of Rs 10,000/-. But, the aggrieved people were obviously not happy with this paltry compensation. Again, surprisingly, none of the authorities gave evidence that they had studied the September floods scientifically and methodically. Because, there was no roadmap unveiled by them to avoid recurrence of the damage caused due to floods.

 

The year 2023 would go into the annals as another period of ‘development’ for the city. But, it will also go down in memory as another year of worsening liveability. For, several issues including the dangerous menace of stray dogs, traffic jams, deteriorating air quality, lack of action against rising noise pollution, poor utilisation of closed circuit television (CCTV) camera surveillance systems to check traffic indiscipline, abandonment of health infrastructure improvement projects announced during COVID-19 pandemic period, etc constitute an unfinished business. One just hopes that these issues will be addressed in the New Year. Development, ‘in concrete terms’, has been on the rise. However, liveability, in terms of effective urban planning and ease, has been on an undesired trajectory. Against this backdrop, ‘The Hitavada’ -- The People’s Paper -- thought it fit to continue with its mission of highlighting the issues faced by the people. It ran several reports including the series on flood-affected persons’ grievances, and also highlighting deterioration in air quality, other urban issues. These issues constitutes a ‘work-list’ for all the authorities and powers that preside over the city’s growth and progress. As the year 2023 drew to a close, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he did not have a ‘wish-list’ but a ‘work-list’. One hopes that the powers that be and the administrative authorities take the right message even for Nagpur and focus on the to-do-list for the city while ushering in the New Year -- 2024.