Nagpur Improvement Trust

Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT)(Marathi: नागपूर सुधार न्यास [नासुप्र]) is a local civic government body with the task of developing new areas within city limits of Nagpur, India and maintaining existing city infrastructure. Trust works along with Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) which is an elected body of city representatives (Corporator). NIT itself is not a democratically elected civic body and has members appointed in it from various levels like Government of Maharashtra, NMC and other representatives of Nagpur city. NIT thus has a small management body as compared to NMC. NIT holds the planning and development authority for Nagpur city but does not receive any funds from state government. Funds needed for development work are raised by NIT through the auction of newly developed areas.

NIT has played a major role in the expansion and maintaining Nagpur in its past 65+ years of work. However, the existence of NIT alongside NMC has been criticised several times as a violation of constitution of India. Several Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and former Governor of Maharashtra tried to abolish this agency but did not succeed. The Argument is that the Constitution of India allows only democratically elected bodies to carry out the work of civic administration. Since NIT is not such a body, it has been demanded by several political bodies to abolish the NIT Act of 1936 or to merge NIT with NMC. It has been claimed that due to political reasons state government has failed to take any action till now. However, there are similar organizations like the Mumbai Metropolitan and Area Development Authority (MMRDA), Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and several such agencies that are functioning in the country today and the argument of NIT not fulfilling Constitutional Requirements has not been substantiated in the Courts of Law. NIT has also faced criticism from those farmers which had to hand over their lands as per NIT directives and Urban land ceiling act.

Nagpur is an important city in central India and during days of British Raj two separate committees were formed to look after city's development. The Nagpur Municipal Committee was established in 1864. The Civil Station Sub-Committee was established in 1884. In 1928, the Municipal Committee passed a resolution for creating an "Improvement Trust" for Nagpur which was established in 1937 under the Nagpur Improvement Trust Act, 1936. NIT began functioning in 1937 and has collateral jurisdiction over the areas within the limits of the town wherever schemes are prepared by the trust and approved by the government.

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