By IANS
New Delhi : Problems faced by residents of the national capital are more because of bad planning rather than migration, Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken said Friday.
"Let people come to Delhi. It's the national capital," Maken said, taking a pot shot at Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who had invited criticism recently when she blamed migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for the capital's woes.
"Those who are claiming that Delhi's urban mess is due to large migration forget that other cities like Mumbai and Kolkata are more congested," Maken said, while launching a book on the Delhi Master Plan-2021.
"While only 9,900 people live in one sq km area of Delhi, its 27,000 in Mumbai and 23,000 in Kolkata. The density of population in London is 125,000 persons per sq km."
A recent United Nations (UN) report had also cautioned governments against following policies that halt urban migration and suggested that they should instead shift focus to positive factors like social development, investment in health and education, empowerment of women and better access to reproductive health services.
Maken said the last two master plans had failed to fulfil their promises and the government had developed only 16 percent of the planned commercial areas.
"The new master plan will iron out all these follies and provide enough commercial space. So traders need not fight their battles on roads," Maken said, adding that the Supreme Court will hear the new master plan case on July 23.
"We hope the people of Delhi in general and traders in particular can breathe a sigh of relief. We have also urged the honourable court to allow people to build third storey as proposed in the new master plan," he said.
He said "vertical growth" as opposed to "horizontal growth" was the only viable solution for metro cities like Delhi. "This will help us save energy, water and provide viable accommodation to 25 million people by 2021.
The capital is currently home to over 16 million people.
The minister said the "artificial spiralling of commercial space" would soon come down as his minister is going to provide more space to people.
"The demand supply gap would be bridged through the new masters plan. Besides, the involvement of private players in the building commercial space would also help the cause. The Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) monopoly on land would be reduced and public participation would be encouraged," Maken added.