Urban Development Policy for West Bengal
For the first time, the West Bengal government has prepared a state Urban Development Policy. This was done after they got a nod from the Cabinet Standing Committee on Infrastructure. The state’s Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim stated that such a policy was a strong requirement to cope with the growing urbanisation. Hakim announced the government’s decision after the cabinet meeting.
AmitMitra who is the Finance Minister and Chairman of a Group of Minister (GoM) for the state of West Bengal, elaborated the policy. He mentioned that the benefits of living in a metro city would accrue to a large number of people by providing scope of raising floor-space of existing buildings. This can be done under several conditions and this will boost the government’s revenues in the process.
Mitra also stated that the state government has taken this bold step to accommodate more people in the metropolis. This is done to meet the requirements of the growing urbanisation. He said that the growth of urban population in the state was 31 % from the year 2001 to 2011. Unfortunately this was against 27 % growth of national average.
That means there are more people migrating to Kolkata and other urban areas in West Bengal compared to the migration to other cities in the country. Hence the government needs to take steps accommodate this inflow.
Source- The Economic Times
AmitMitra, Firhad Hakim, Group of Minister, urban development minister, Urban Development Policy, urbanisation
