NGO files complaint against Gurgaon-Manesar draft plan

GURGAON: A NGO here today filed a complaint to Town and Country Planning department objecting the draft development plan-2031 for Gurgaon-Manesar Urban Complex, claiming that the blueprints cater more to the interest of builders, political leaders rather than the general public.

'People's Voice', a NGO chaired by retired IAS officer S P Gupta, has alleged that that the state government is frequently changing city development plans without any reason or justification.

"City development plan is made after a lot of study, discussions with all the stake holders. Thus, it is a well thought document/plan for future of the city at least for a period of 10 to 15 years.

"But here government is changing it so frequently i.e. it has changed the plan three times in just a period of five years, first in 2007, second time in 2011 and now third time in 2012, giving the impression to public that it is serving the interest of the builders, political and other vested interest only," the NGO has alleged.

The NGO also said that the Gurgaon-Manesar urban complex comes under NCR planning board and therefore all development plans regarding has to be approved by it.

"All the city developments plans comprising of NCR are to be approved by NCR planning board (NCRPB) only. But in these cases no such approval of the NCR planning board was taken in any of the above mentioned plans," it said.

The NGO said according to a Supreme Court observation, approval of development plan by NCR planning board is a must and that is why Noida development authority could not implement it till it was approved by them.

Through its letter addressed to Director General of Town and Country Planning department, the NGO has appealed to the state government to seek the approval of NCRPB before going ahead with the implementation of the draft.