Looking beyond Delhi for a future

NCRPB identifies Kanpur,Ambala,Dehradun as counter magnets to stem migrant flow to Delhi.

Hoping to stem the migration to Delhi,the National Capital Region Planning Board NCRPB has added Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh,Dehradun in Uttarakhand and Ambala in Haryana to the NCRs Counter Magnet Area CMA. Counter magnet towns are those that can be developed as alternate centres of growth and attract migrants who would,in this case,otherwise head to Delhi. Promoting growth of counter magnet towns are the principal components of the strategy to reduce both migration and population explosion in the Delhi metropolitan area. The criteria for selecting counter magnet towns are that they should not be within commutable distance from Delhi and should have their own established roots and potential for growth.

NCRPB Member Secretary Noor Mohammad said that the Union Ministry of Urban Development has already given in-principle approval for the three cities to be declared counter magnets and formal notification was likely in the next few months. We had commissioned a study on migration trends and found that much of the migration to Delhi was from Bihar and UP. So we felt the need to add more cities to the Counter Magnet Area to absorb this migration, he said.

According to the study,the migration flow to Delhi may accelerate over the next few years. Delhi currently has five counter magnet towns Hisar Haryana,Bareilly Uttar Pradesh,Kota Rajasthan,Patiala Punjab and Gwalior Madhya Pradesh.

The benefit of having counter magnets to Delhi and the NCR region is that these help in restricting the population explosion in the area. And the advantage for the counter magnets themselves is the potential to become economic centres. Impetus to development increases in these cities, Noor Mohammad said. The NCRPB incentivises by helping these cities grow. We have provided funding for projects in Kota,Gwalior and Patiala, he said.

For instance,Gwalior and Hisar set up special magnet authorities to ensure that the cities drew away crowds from the NCR. This included setting up of integrated townships. Hisar has a draft development plan focusing on commercial growth in the area which includes the villages around it.

According to the NCRPB study and 2001 Census,migration to the already declared counter magnet areas has actually increased,except in the case of Bareilly where people have actually moved out of the city.

Worker participation rate in all CMAs has increased and regional connectivity has improved.

Hisar has improved water supply and sewerage systems.

Patiala has an integrated township.

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Bareilly has two residential development schemes and a Transport Nagar.

Kota has an integrated township.

Gwalior has a new town development scheme.

The profile of the migrants highlights that total migration to NCT-Delhi in the decade 1991-2001 was 23.54 lakh,including 0.49 lakh migrants from outside India. At least 29.82 per cent were illiterates. Females accounted for 44 per cent of the migrants. UP and Bihar sent maximum migrants to Delhi,together contributing 64.25 per cent of the total migration. Of this,45.16 per cent came from UP and Uttarakhand.