Advani stresses on planned development

Indore, Jan 5 (UNI) Former deputy prime minister L K Advani today said that planned development was imperative to save cities from a proliferation of slum clusters.

''Population pressure in urban areas is increasing due to inadequate employment in villages and lack of investment in agriculture,'' the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said in an address after unveiling an ambitious Urban Renewal Coordinated Development Scheme here.

''People are left wanting accommodation, water, power and other basic facilities,'' the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bigwig pointed out.

Among those present were Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP state President Narendra Singh Tomar, Urban Administration Minister Jayant Malaiya, Public Works Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and MP Sumitra Mahajan.

''The National Democratic Alliance government drafted several schemes for developing cities,'' Mr Advani recalled.

Praising the Chouhan government's work, he added that political parties should compete in doing good work and not in finding fault.

He issued a clarion call for making civic bodies and the rest of the state corruption-free.

''In three years, Madhya Pradesh has come out of the category of 'bimaru' states and in the next two years it will rank among developed states,'' Mr Chouhan reiterated.

Besides the ministers, Mayor Umashashi Sharma also expressed her views.

UNI