Uttar Pradesh government wants 6 more UP districts to be part of NCR
The UP government has given a reasoned recommendation for each of the six districts it wants to be included in the National Capital Region.
The Yogi Adityanath government wants six more districts of Uttar Pradesh to be included in the National Capital Region (NCR).
In a letter to member secretary, NCR Planning Board, principal secretary, housing, Mukul Singhal has communicated the UP government’s recommendation to include Mathura, Aligarh, Hathras, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli — all Western UP districts – into the NCR.
As of now, five UP districts namely, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Hapur and Baghpat are part of the NCR.
The proposal to get six more districts included in the NCR was initiated when Muzaffarnagar was brought into its (NCR) ambit in 2015. Shamli encompasses a fertile sugarcane belt and was carved out of Muzaffarnagar in 2011.
Consequently, say officials, it was only a matter of time before the UP government asked for the same for Shamli and other districts.
The UP government has given a reasoned recommendation for each of the six districts it wants to be included in the NCR.
The district magistrates of these districts were asked to make a detailed presentation to press their claim after which the state government okayed the proposal.
For instance, in the case of Shamli, district’s population is already in urban areas and it is sandwiched between Panipat, Karnal (both in Haryana) and Muzaffarnagar, which are all already in the NCR.
One of the main attractions and clamour for districts wanting to be part of the NCR are the funds they would be eligible for from the NCR Planning Board (NCRPB), the apex planning body in the region, which come under the Union urban development ministry.
NCRPB was set up in 1985 through an Act of Parliament, an outcome of a 1962 master plan to look at Delhi in the regional context.
Two other districts, Bareilly and Kanpur, have been identified as counter magnet areas of the NCR.