India should avoid China-like urbanisation: NITI Aayog Vice Chairman

India should not replicate foreign urbanisation models like that of China which may lead to "inequitable and unbalanced" urbanisation, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Thursday.

He said that development in China had happened only along the coastline whereas other areas had remained backward, forcing millions of people to move inward to their homelands during the Chinese New Year. India cannot have millions of people moving from one part of the nation to the other on festivals like Diwali or Holi, he added.

"It's unfortunate that we continuously look for foreign models... We cannot let India replicate what China has done," Rajiv Kumar said during the national workshop on "Municipal Finance and Effective & Accelerated Implementation of Smart Cities" here.

Given India's diversity, it cannot afford "inequitable and unbalanced urbanisation", he said.

"To minimize the presence of dualistic structure and to connect villages with all the urban facilities, we need to introduce the concept of 'rurban'," he said.

"In order to empower our cities, we need economic-political legitimacy, technologically smart solutions and intellectual legitimacy," he added.

He said that instead of urbanising certain pockets, India needs to create engines of growth across the country.

"Unless we do that, we won't get intellectual legitimacy."

--IANS

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