In a surprising development, Haryana has asked for one-third reduction in its current share of the National Capital Region (NCR). It has asked the NCR Planning Board (NCRPB) to consider its request. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar reportedly said: “More than benefits, the state is facing losses due to an excessive area under NCR.”
NCR is officially spread over 55,083 sqkm and 25,327 sqkm lie in Haryana. NCR covers 14 out of a total of 22 districts in Haryana. These are Karnal, Jind, Mahendragarh, Bhiwani, Palwal, Charkhi Dadri, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Jhajjar, Rewari, Sonipat, Panipat, Rohtak and Nuh.
Delhi NCR, meanwhile, accounts for 2.69% of the region, while Haryana has the largest share of 45.98%. Uttar Pradesh has 26.92% encompassing eight districts, while Rajasthan has 24.41%.
Explaining the rationale for Haryana seeking a reduction of its share in NCR, Khattar reportedly said:
“The area under NCR was expanded to reduce the urbanisation burden on the national capital of Delhi. Thus, it was decided to develop the adjoining areas also with parallel facilities, infrastructure and other amenities. The area kept on exceeding. However, with that expansion, certain ill-effects were also being noticed.”
NCRPB in its 41st meeting held on October 12, 2021, under the chairmanship of Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri has reportedly approved the Draft Regional Plan 2041 which has been in the works for the last two years.
Most media reports have focused on some noteworthy goals of the plan, such as a slum-free NCR with air ambulance facility and high-speed multi-modal connectivity through helitaxis, roads, 30-minute Mass Transit Rail System to nearby cities, superfast trains, inland waterways, electric mobility infrastructure, emphasis on water, air quality improvements, urban regeneration, ease of living, etc.
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However, an aspect that hasn’t received much attention is the delineation of the NCR itself, which was being pushed by Haryana. Originally, when the NCRPB Act was passed in 1985, only four districts of Haryana were fully considered as part of NCR—Sonipat, Rohtak, Gurgaon and Faridabad. Apart from these, only the tehsils of Panipat (Karnal district) and Rewari (Mahendragarh district) were included. Of course, some tehsils that were part of aforementioned districts later became districts in themselves (such as Jhajjar in Rohtak, Nuh in Gurgaon, Palwal in Faridabad). The area, therefore, got expanded to far-flung areas such as Jind and Bhiwani districts.
The idea was to benefit financially from the development projects that the NCR area would get for which finances would be shared between states and the centre. Last year in July, the Haryana government sent a proposal to the NCRPB to reduce its NCR area from 25,327 sqkm to 8,281.60 sqkm, i.e. by one-third. It proposed that under the revised delineation of the NCR, only the area falling within the 50-km radius from the centre of NCT Delhi be covered under NCR. In addition, the area of NCR along national highways or expressways with a 1-km-wide buffer on both sides along with extension along national highways 44 and 9 up to Hisar and Ambala should be considered.
However, the NCRPB seems to have rejected this radical proposal and finalised NCR as a contiguous circular region of 100-km radius from Rajghat in Delhi. States will be free to include or omit tehsils lying partly within the 100-km radius.
Apart from this, beyond the 100-km radius and up to the current NCR boundary, all notified cities/towns with a corridor of 1 km on either side of connecting expressways/national highways/ state highways/Regional Rapid Transit System will be classified as NCR. So, Haryana’s suggestion was partially accepted.
Khattar added that he would be taking up the matter with Puri in the NCRPB’s next meeting. He added:
“For instance, when the NGT imposes restrictions be it to curb pollution, or other infrastructural curbs, the entire portion (roughly 57% of Haryana) also gets affected with those restrictions. With reduction in the area under NCR, at least a large proportion of such areas shall be free from such restrictions.”
According to reports, the Haryana government had first proposed this reduction in July last year. The government had also submitted a proposal for a revised delineation of NCR for the planning board’s approval. As per the government’s draft proposal, it has said that the extent of Haryana sub-region should be 8,281.60 sqkm against the current area of 25,327 sqkm.
The inclusion of far-flung districts like Bhiwani, Mahendragarh, Jind, Karnal and Charkhi Dadri were not serving any purpose in terms of reducing the urbanisation burden on Delhi. The chief minister had suggested that such pollution control norms should be implemented within a 10-km radius of the NCT-Delhi or within the 10-km radius of cities that have a population over 10 lakh.
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In this case, one can understand the centre’s rationale for delineating the NCR for targeted development of priority areas, but why is a state like Haryana, which actively lobbied in the past to increase the NCR area, now batting to reduce the same? Previously, Haryana wanted more districts added into NCR to get more infrastructure projects approved by the NCRPB, and to get loans from it at low interest rates. The craze for adding more districts in NCR found popular support as people thought this would increase the market price of their agricultural land. Of course, this would’ve happened had development taken place at a fast pace in these areas, but their dreams of becoming the next Gurgaon or Noida have fallen flat.
Pollution provisions have become a big nuisance in the recent past. Khattar had requested the Union environment ministry to make implementation of pollution-control provisions district-specific rather than applying them to the whole of NCR. He reasoned that these regulations should be
“applied within the 10-kilometre radius of the national capital territory of Delhi or within the 10-km radius of cities having 10 lakh population or as per the district specified”
Section 10(2) (a) of the NCRPB Act, 1985, states that the regional plan shall indicate “the policy in relation to land use and the allocation of land for different uses”. How the land in NCR is to be used for various purposes is decided by the planning board. Even though inputs of states are taken, there is definitely a problem of loss of sovereignty of chief ministers in how to best develop their areas as per their requirement.
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Additionally, hinterland areas, tehsils and rural areas in far away districts can’t possibly be governed by similar regulations that apply in say a rural or a semi-urban cluster in or near Delhi.
—By Abhilash Kumar Singh and India Legal Bureau