NAGPUR: A dispute between the city’s two planning authorities — Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) — has prolonged the dreams of 317 families to construct houses on their hard-earned plots. There is no clarity whether the NMC or the NIT is the planning authority for land situated under green belt schemes.On January 1, TOI had highlighted the plight of 317 families unable to build houses on their plots due to an overhead water tank on the approved road and a road on plots by the NIT in the layout of Crown Co-operative Plot Holders’ Association in Chinchbhuvan six years ago. The plot owners were running pillar to post to get NIT’s mistakes rectified. The state government withdrew powers of the NIT as a planning authority in August 2019. After that, the issue shifted to NMC which said it would take time to find a way out.“Officials of the NMC’s town planning department visited the layout and suggested shifting the road to an adjacent area. It was the responsibility of the NIT to shift the road but it did not paid heed. The problem was solved after we collected funds and constructed a new road,” one of the office bearers of the society told TOI.“NIT had approved a road adjacent to the public utility (PU) land in the layout. The NIT did not measure the exact area of the PU land as the entire layout was vacant. The NIT constructed an overhead water tank on some part of the PU land and the approved road. As the tank is a giant structure, it cannot be demolished or shifted. The road needs to be shifted so that it does not affect the plots. We submitted a revised layout plan showing the road in another place but NMC officials are saying the government has given back powers of the planning authority to the NIT in February. NMC officials say they don’t know whether to send the case back to NIT or to revise the plan,” added the office bearer.NMC officials say the layout comes under the Green Belt scheme and was regularized by the NIT. “The government again made NIT the planning authority for seven schemes and Gunthewari areas that need regularization. It’s not clear whether Green Belt areas too were given back to the NIT. Municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B wrote to the government seeking clarification on the planning authority for Green Belt areas,” they said.