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"Pondy yet to submit City Development Plan to Centre"

Staff Reporter

Stop migration to urban areas: M. Rajamani

PUDUCHERRY: M. Rajamani, Mission Director of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission Scheme, and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, has said Puducherry was yet to submit the City Development Plan to the Centre.

Out of 63 cities in the country, 60 cities have submitted the plan. Puducherry, Shillong and Panaji were yet to submit it.

Addressing a seminar on the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission Scheme here on Friday, Mr. Rajamani stressed the need to stop migration from rural to urban areas. He said that urbanisation was taking place at a fast pace (i.e.) at the rate of three per cent per annum. Forty per cent of the property tax remained uncollected in bigger cities, he said.

Infrastructure

Mr. Rajamani said the issue of how to create sustainability in infrastructure in the long run need to be addressed. There was a need for proper reforms focussing on finance and governance, he added.

He said cities with poor facilities were coming under serious strain. Delivering the keynote address, R. Santhanam, Vice-Chairman, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, regretted that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's vision of panchayati rajhas not been translated into reality owing to a lack of political will and many other reasons.

Facilities in rural areas

Migration to urban areas from rural areas could be curtailed by providing urban facilities in rural areas.

He warned that urban areas would become heavily populated in a few years and said that there would be a drop in land-man ratio.

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