By IANS,
Gurgaon : Gurgaon requires an apex development agency on the lines of the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) and a committee has been formed to look into it, says a central minister who is an MP from the region.
Rao Inderjeet Singh, the minister of state for defence production who is an MP from the Mahendragarh constituency of which Gurgaon is a part, said the suburb requires an apex development agency on the lines of Noida.
“I spoke to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and conveyed to him the concern of a large section of society in Gurgaon who have raised the demand for the formation of the Gurgaon Development Authority (GDA).
“He has ordered the setting up of a committee comprising former state chief secretaries M.C. Gupta and Prem Prashant. The committee has to decide whether or not Gurgaon requires the GDA when the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) is already there,” Singh told IANS.
Singh said the proposed GDA could work as an apex body under which other agencies like MCG will function. “GDA could oversee the entire planning and development of the city as a supreme entity while other sub-agencies carry on the execution and implementation of decisions.”
Gupta said: “We will put up our report on it by the end of June.”
The Haryana government this month set up the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, bringing almost the entire township under its jurisdiction. However, a huge number of people, especially from privately developed colonies such as DLF City and Sushant are apprehensive about the success of the MCG. They are demanding the formation of the GDA.
Sudhir Kapur, secretary general of the DLF City Residents Welfare Association, said the residents had been demanding the formation of an autonomous development agency called GDA in Gurgaon much before the MCG was set up. Municipal corporations in India have a poor track record, he said.
“We need the GDA that would have a commissioner who can take independent decisions in the larger interests of residents like in Noida,” said Kapur.