Popular in your locality? Get a lane named after you

If a North Corporation Budget 2015-16 proposal is passed, even common citizens will have the right to pick a name for a road, park or school.

The road can be named after anyone who has contributed to society and meets yet to be announced criteria, and pays the set fee. Technically, a person can even nominate himself.

“With an aim to put an end to the politics behind naming lanes and parks, a common man or an organisation can get parks named as per their wishes after paying an amount to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation,” the proposal said.

“Hospitals, (municipal) schools, hospitals, community centres, parks and lanes can be named according to the wish of any person or organisation,” it added.

But before initiating the process, the naming committee of the corporation will study the moral and social implications of the move, said P K Gupta, Commissioner of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. “The person should have done something that others can look up to, then only he will be eligible to get any lane named after him,” said Gupta.

But the Opposition slammed the proposal saying, “Though the exercise will help the civic agency fetch extra revenue, it will set a bad precedent for general public.”

“The rich will get an opportunity to get public institutions like hospitals and schools named after themselves and poor and honest people won’t get the chance to avail of this facility,” said Leader of Opposition Mukesh Goel.

The commissioner said, “If we can buy a VIP number for our cars, why can’t we get parks named after ourselves?”

To which the Leader of the Opposition replied, “For buying VIP numbers one has to shell out money. Going by that logic anybody who has the money can get lanes named after himself, be it a criminal or scamsters.”