Kapil Sibal wants new look for Chandni Chowk

Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal today sought better planning from local authorities to improve the existing infrastructure and give a new look to Chandni Chowk, the constituency he represents in the Lok Sabha.

Sibal, participating at a meeting convened by chief minister Sheila Dikshit to ensure speedy implementation of various schemes in the constituency, said a planned approach should be adopted to relocate the wholesale trade from the congested area.

He also suggested that all the hanging electricity wires should be put underground and authorities should take up development of Jhughi Jhopri clusters. Sibal also called for removing obstacles that have come in the way of construction of Azadpur flyover.

The Union minister said the the special purpose vehicle which was set up in the year 2007 should be made functional for conservation of Shahjahanabad as a heritage site.

All the MLAs from the Chandni Chowk constituency were also present at the meeting, besides all the city government ministers and top offcials of various agencies and departments.

Dikshit, who had already held separate meetings with MPs and MLAs of five Lok Sabha constituencies, concluded the interaction by holding deliberations with the legislators from Chandni Chowk and South Delhi constituency today.

The primary purpose of the meetings was to improve coordination among agencies and to take opinion of elected representatives on various developmental issues.

"We will review implementation of various decisions taken during the deliberations in the last few days. The meetings were very productive and officials were told to implement the decisions," Dikshit said later.

Dikshit said the entire exercise will help in ensuring a people-friendly approach while implementing various schemes of the government.

Officials said a decision was taken to change the nomenclature 'Jhugi Jhopri' colonies  was also taken.

The colonies have come a long way and in some of them basic facilities are at par with many developed colonies. These colonies will have separate names without having JJ tags, they said.

Most of the MLAs from both the parliamentary demanded better water supply, setting up of new hospitals, improvement in educational infrastructure, metro connectivity and enhancement in road transport infrastructure.

A number of MLAs demanded streamlining of providing ration to the people and said the entire system needs an overhaul. They said ration should be granted as per assembly segment. Dikshit assured the MLAs that government would heed to the suggestion.

Education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely demanded better water supply for his constituency in Deoli.

South Delhi MP Ramesh Kumar sought special attention of Delhi government in improving basic infrastructure in Badarpur assembly segment.