Dikshit calls on states to develop infrastructure to check migration to Delhi

Identifying migration as a major challenge facing Delhi, chief minister Sheila Dikshit today asked major states to develop infrastructure in their cities so that people are not forced to migrate to the national capital in search of jobs.

Speaking at an interaction organised by CII, the Delhi CM also called on the centre to build more new cities across the country to ease pressure on Delhi.

"The state governments must develop bigger cities, comfortable cities. All the states will have to think why their people are migrating from their states. If the states provide them opportunities and livelihood, build better cities, then I do not think the migration will continue," she said.

Pointing out that the state government had been continuously enhancing Delhi's infrastructure to cater to the rising population, Dikshit said concrete steps had to be initiated to cut increasing flow of people to the national capital.

"More than half a million people come to Delhi every year primarily in search of job. The increasing number of people is putting pressure on our infrastructure... The infrastructure in Delhi is not bad. But it needs to be upgraded constantly to meet the demand," she said.

The chief minister had called for declaring National Capital Region (NCR) comprising Delhi and satellite towns as a common economic and taxation zone which, according to her, would have cut down the increasing flow of migrants into the city.