Plan to build townships remains on paper

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, July 24

An ambitious project of the state government to develop satellite townships around major cities and towns has failed to take off. This and the previous BJP government had decided to develop satellite townships around Dharamsala, Mandi, Solan and Shimla.

In Dharamsala, land near the Gaggal airport was identified. The idea behind satellite townships was to bring up planned habitations to ease population burden on the towns. All major towns are marred by unplanned growth that is stretching public resources.

However, the urban development authority has failed to set up planned housing colonies. In Dharamsala, almost all villages around the town including Khaniara, Dharamkot, Bhagsu and Dhari are part of main Dharamsala town.

However, just one planned colony has been developed at Khaniara by the urban development authority.

Private developers are picking up small pieces of lands in the villages and distributing plots in them. However, such illegal colonies are only adding to the problem of already cluttered town. The maximum passage that is allowed is such private colonies is just 8 to 10 feet or even smaller that is not enough for even plying a car.

The result is that residents of such colonies have to park cars on main roads. Even office or commercial complexes coming up in and around the town are not adhering to the norms fixed by the Town and Country Planning Department. Most of the complex owners are not keeping space for any parking.

In Palampur, the government has decided to include a few villages into the local municipal committee. However, the villagers are opposing the move. They are maintaining that villages get much more privileges as compared to towns. They get benefits of the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and rates of water and electricity supply in villages are lesser than urban areas.

Villagers are right in opposing the move as they are not likely to get any benefit but will lose privileges given to rural areas.

The state government has also failed to promote private developers in the interior areas. Private developers cannot take up ventures on their own in the state due to small land holdings and provisions of Section 118 of the Land Tenancy Act.

The government will either have to use its own agencies for developing planned colonies or create policy for encouraging private investment in the area for planned growth of urban areas in the state.