New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila
Dikshit wants National Capital Region (NCR) comprising Delhi
and satellite towns to become a common economic and taxation
zone, a move she feels will cut down the increasing flow of
migrants into the city.
Dikshit, while identifying migration into Delhi as a
major challenge, said she has already taken up the matter with
the neighbouring states as well as prominent industry chambers
including FICCI, CII and PHD Chamber of Commerce but the
response so far has not been very encouraging.
"I have always been a very, very vociferous votary of
NCR region being a common economic and a common taxation
zone.I have said it in every meeting of the NCR Planning
Board," she told agency in an interview.
In its meeting last month, Dikshit had asked the Board
to take appropriate steps to ease the pressure on capital's
infrastructure due to increasing migration and emphasised the
need for developing counter-magnet centres.
"At the time of independence we had 14 lakh
population. Today we have 160 lakh population. The areas remain
same. Though the satellite towns have come up, it has not been
enough because the hub and the centre of all economic
activities of Northern India remains in Delhi," Dikshit said.
The NCR Planning Board, an autonomous body under the
Ministry of Urban Development, was set up to prepare regional
plan for the National Capital Region and to fund important
infrastructure development projects.
Advocating the common economic zone, she said sincere
efforts must be initiated to address the issue to provide same
number of job opportunities in neighbouring cities.
"You can increase Chennai's areas, you can increase
Hyderabad's areas, you can increase Mumbai's areas but you
cannot increase Delhi's land.It is surrounded by states which
will not give you an inch of land," Dikshit said.
To ease pressure on Delhi, Dikshit also appealed to
the Centre to build more new cities across the country.
"Please build more cities as comfortable as Delhi is
or as opportune as say Hyderabad is or Bangalore is, Chennai
is or Delhi is. We need about 100 to 200 cities like this.So
that the influx into these areas especially into Delhi (could
be controlled)," Dikshit said.
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 25, 2009, 13:56