Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday said he has suggested to the Centre that area in the radius of up to 100 km around Delhi should be kept in the National Capital Region (NCR).
He also said that when the NCR was formed, people of far-off districts thought that they would get a lot of benefits through inclusion in the NCR.
But it was not according to their expectations, a state government statement quoted the chief minister as saying.
In this regard, he has suggested to the Centre that an area up to 100 km should be kept in the NCR, the statement said.
The chief minister was speaking after redressing public grievances in Karnal.
Of the 22 districts of Haryana, 14 fall in the NCR, which includes some far-off districts well beyond 100 km radius like Charkhi Dadri, Karnal, Jind and Bhiwani.
Khattar during an interaction was told that inclusion of these areas, which extend well beyond 100 km, was not serving any real purpose in terms of reducing urbanisation pressure on national capital Delhi, while some people feel various restrictions which are applicable to the NCR were not practical for places like Bhiwani or Karnal.
The NCR as notified covers the whole of the National Capital Territory (NCT)-Delhi and certain districts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, covering an area of about 55,083 sq. kms.
Khattar, who held a janta durbar in Karnal, said public hearing programmes were halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic earlier but they have been resumed.
During the Saturday’s programme, over 700 people put forth their issues and grievances, and directions were given to officers on the spot to resolve most of them.
There were about 20 to 25 people who had come from other neighbouring districts in addition to Karnal.
Chief Minister Khattar said that while majority complaints were redressed in Karnal itself, some related to policy matters at the state level would be redressed from Chandigarh.
The grievances which Khattar heard included complaints related to various departments such as education, medical, road construction and police. Majority of them were redressed on the spot and necessary instructions were given to officers, the statement said.