Picture used for representative purpose only.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s recent announcement of the formation of Gurgaon Development Authority has come as a welcome relief to residents. The agency is expected to eliminate the need of not only getting approval from Chandigarh but also for being a single authority responsible for the development of the city, much like Jaipur and Delhi Development Authority.
According to sources, the draft for the formation of GDA has been directly taken from the Jaipur Development Authority Act, 1982. And the only difference is changes in names of places, official posts and references to local laws. From the establishment and constitution of the authority, to meetings, powers of the executive council, appointments, powers and functions of the authority and constitution of boards, the draft is a replica of the JDA act.
The GDA, however, is likely to be a more powerful body than JDA. As per the draft, the Chief Minister would be the GDA chairman while the vice-chairman would be a senior IAS officer in the rank of additional chief secretary, who will act as the chief executive officer.
The announcement has made one thing clear, that the GDA will not take Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon's place, as speculated earlier. "We have two months to work out the nitty-gritty," Khattar had said. November 1 is Haryana's 50th formation day and it seems that the CM intends to mark the day with an interesting twist in governance.
As of now, multiple authorites (Haryana Urban Development Authority, MCG, private developers, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd) is the bane of Gurgaon. Residents remain confused about which body is accountable for which area and what are their functions. Moreover presence of multiple agencies also leads to passing of the buck.
“All these issues can be addressed if Gurgaon has one agency that is headed by a very senior officer, who has authority and is responsible for all infrastructural planning, development and coordination within the city without political interference. Approvals for all projects in Gurgaon will be available in the city itself. No file will to be sent to Chandigarh after the formation of GDA,” says Kishore Asthana, a resident of Sushant lok I.
