GIS-based master plan to improve urban planning accuracy: Reddy

Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy said a GIS-based master plan will improve urban planning accuracy. The ministry will issue guidelines to states to ensure better layout formation and boundary fixation.

The chairman of the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, on Friday said the GIS-based master plan for all states will improve accuracy in urban planning and benefit governance. Reddy said officers from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs attended the committee meeting, where members raised several questions on the issue. He said the discussion included corrections and suggestions that will be implemented, and the ministry will issue guidelines to states to ensure better accuracy in layout formation and boundary fixation.

Speaking to the reporters, Reddy said, "Yes, today, this GIS master plan for all the states. Officers from the MoHUA, they have attended the meeting. And our honorable members also raised a lot of questions regarding this. This is actually a good topic to discuss and some corrections they have made. Those will be implemented, and the ministry also will inform states to follow up with all these guidelines so that accuracy will be more hereafter for making the layout formation and fixation of limits and boundaries for all those things. Already it has been made, but the states also have to follow it."

When asked how GIS-based mapping will help the common man and the government, he said that the state government ultimately represents the common people and that the system will be useful for them as well. "No, the state government, ultimately... the state government means common man only. It will be useful also," he said.

Panel reviews India-US trade relations

Earlier in the day, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce Chairperson Dola Sen said the panel is comprehensively evaluating India-US trade relations, covering both "possibilities" and "constraints" across key sectors including agriculture, textiles, automobiles, steel, fisheries and chemicals.

Speaking exclusively to ANI after a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce in New Delhi, Sen said the committee held discussions with the Ministry of Skill Development and industry bodies including FIEO (Federation of Indian Export Organisations), CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) and FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) as part of its ongoing study on the "Evaluation of India-US Trade Relations." "We are discussing the evolution of Indo-US trade relations on tariff hike, on dollar-rupee relationship, on crude oil and petrol-diesel comparison for the last 15 years or 20 years, on textile sector, on automotive sector, on leather sector, on fisheries, on marine products, on agriculture, on gems and jewellery, on chemicals including polymers and plastics, on steel sector, etc. All the relevant subjects," Sen told ANI. (ANI)

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