Chandigarh, February 6
Are too many cooks spoiling the urban broth? Yes, it seems to be true in case of Punjab. So many bodies are engaged in urban development that a confusion of sorts has been created in that sector.
First there are municipal committees and municipal corporations. Administrative control over these bodies is that of the Local Bodies Department. Then there are improvement trusts. These also function under the administrative control of the Local Bodies Department.
Next there is a Punjab Urban Development Authority ( PUDA). Besides it, there are the Greater Area Mohali Development Authority (GAMADA) and the Greater Ludhiana Development Authority. There are separate development authorities for Jalandhar, Amritsar and Bathinda. And then there is a Punjab Urban Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB).
Obviously because of such a multiplicity of bodies engaged in urban development in the state, most of the cities and towns have been reduced
to urban jungles.
All important towns and cities, including Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Bathinda and Patiala, have been evolved without following any urban philosophy and pattern. Resultantly, citizens face a lot of problems in the form of traffic snarls.
For instance, PUDA, that was given the responsibility of planned urban development, over the years allowed a haphazard growth of shanty townships such as Zirakpur, Naya Gaon etc in the periphery of Chandigarh. Though PUDA headquarters was located in Mohali, a short distance from Zirakpur and Naya Gaon, it failed to check the illegal growth in both towns.
When Zirakpur and Naya Gaon developed into semi-urban settlements, various pressure groups, backed by politicians, raised the demand to convert these towns into nagar panchayats, lowest category of urban local bodies. Zirakpur was declared a nagar panchayat a few years ago and Naya Gaon-Kansal was declared such an entity a year ago.
Both towns are the worst examples of urban development. These are nothing but virtual urban slums in the periphery of Chandigarh.
Commenting in this regard, a senior officer said PUDA did not check the haphazard illegal constructions at Zirakpur and Naya Gaon area. As both towns have become nagar panchayats, now the burden has been shifted to the Local Bodies Department to provide civic facilities in both towns.
Keeping in view such a situation, sources said, Local Bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia had taken up the issue with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. He had told Badal that within municipal limits, the writ of the municipal committee or municipal corporation, whichever may be the case, should prevail. Bodies like PUDA, GAMADA, development authorities etc should be asked to develop urban settlements outside the municipal limits and that also in consultation with the Local Bodies Department to maintain harmony and compatibility in the development of the towns and cities and their periphery.
Kalia, the sources said, had told Badal that the municipal committees and corporations had been created on the basis of an Act framed by Parliament, whereas PUDA, GAMADA etc were a creation of state Acts. As the Central Act has supremacy over the state Acts, PUDA, GAMADA and PIDB-like bodies could not hold sway over the municipal committees and corporations as far as urban development was concerned. Local bodies had a full-fledged wing as far as urban development was concerned.
How things are being handled by the state government in urban development, here is another example. At Bathinda, there is one officer. He is additional chief administrator of PUDA and head of the Bathinda Development Authority.
He is also administrator of the Bathinda Improvement Trust, commissioner of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation and deputy director in the regional office of the Local Bodies Department there. At the moment, he holds five charges. Suppose the Bathinda Municipal Corporation prepares a plan and PUDA officials there oppose it, what will the officer heading both bodies do, is the moot question.
