E-Paper
City in for a seachange!
CITY IS set to witness a sea change after getting the coveted status of a metro city which has been notified by the State government. It may be noted that Article 243-ZE in the 74th Constitution Amendment provides for the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC).
CITY IS set to witness a sea change after getting the coveted status of a metro city which has been notified by the State government.
It may be noted that Article 243-ZE in the 74th Constitution Amendment provides for the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC).
It defines a metropolitan area as 'an area having a population of ten lakhs or more, comprised in one or more districts and consisting of two or more municipalities.
The multi-municipal character is, therefore, an essential requirement of a metropolitan area.
The city has more than ten lakh population. The city may be developed on the Delhi Development Authority model by large-scale land acquisition, real estate development and housing construction, feel the experts.
Most of the metropolitan cities are urban agglomerations comprising of several municipal jurisdictions. These urban agglomerations have reached their present dimension and configuration over a period of time. Growth has overrun traditional boundaries, said R K Sharma, an expert who has studied the structure of metro cities.
He said that managing growth in such agglomerations is not just an inter-municipal issue but also involves several departments and agencies of central and state governments.
These agglomerations, however, need a metropolitan vision, planning, advocacy and action. Sources of water, disposal of waste, traffic and transport, drainage, abatement of air pollution etc., are examples where one city corporation or a municipality alone cannot achieve much in isolation.
The Metropolitan Planning Committee is a high level, democratically set up body, which will bring a constitutional mandate to the whole exercise of metropolitan development planning.
The development authorities could work as technical secretariat of Metropolitan Planning Committees as in Kolkata where the MPC has been successful in securing a fair amount of participation from the elected representatives of the corporations and the municipalities in the metropolitan area cutting across party lines.
