Urban Renewal Mission

Indian Cities do not reflect the growth the nation's economy has achieved over the years. Despite various attempts to make our cities shine, the progress has been slow.

In 1991, India had 23 cities with one million or more people. A decade later it had 35. Today at least 28 percent of India's population already lives in cities and millions more travel there every day for temporary work.

The Country has added 65 million people to its urban population in the decade of the `90s alone and nearly fifty per cent of India living in cities by the earlier part of the present century and that should give an idea of the magnitude of the development and renewal task that waits.

According to India's 2001 census, 31 percent of the urban population is poor. And, according to UN estimates, nearly 61.7 million urban people live in slums and squatter settlements in India, which constitute over 21 per cent of the urban population.

JNNURM

India's long-neglected cities, with their poor infrastructure and quality of life that falls far short of global benchmarks, are all set to get a boost with the launch of UPA government’s ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) with an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore to be spend in seven year period aiming to revamp cracking urban infrastructure and basic services in the country.

            Keeping with the commitment made in National Common Minimum Programme, the government launched the JNNURM on 3^rd December 2005.

JNNURM is a mission for integrated development of urban infrastructure services with the assistance of the Centre, state and local bodies. The mission is to cover 63 select cities with emphasis on Infrastructure development and governance and to provide basic services to the urban poor – sanitation, drainage, sewerage, waste management, housing, drinking water supply, slum development and up gradation and development of urban infrastructure.

Two Objectives

The mission has two simultaneous objectives - urban infrastructure development and governance and basic services to the urban poor. It is laudable that improving the conditions of the urban poor is being taken care of while launching the urban renewal mission.  Under the mission, states and local bodies have to implement out-reaching reforms to avail huge funds. Some of the daring reforms the states have to undertake are the repeal of the urban land ceiling act, reform of the rent control act and lowering of stamp duties. This without any doubt would lead to intense activity in the construction sector.

Renewal Mission

          JNNURM is a reforms-driven, fast track, planned development of identified cities with focus on efficiency in urban infrastructure and services delivery, community participation, and accountability of local governments towards citizens. The following broad framework is proposed for the Mission:

• Central sponsorship
• Sector-wise project reports would be prepared by identified cities listing projects along with their priorities.
• The funding pattern would be 35:15:50 (between Centre, States/Urban Local Governments and financial institutions) for mega cities (>40 lakh population), 50:20:30 for cities with populations between one and four million, and 80:10:10 for other cities.
• The grant assistance (both Central and State) would act as seed money to leverage additional resources from financial institutions/capital market.

Reform Agenda

 

· Repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act.

· Rationalization of stamp duty in phases to bring it down to no more than 5 per cent by the end of the Tenth Plan period.

· Reform of rent control laws to stimulate private investment in rental Housing Schemes.

Cities and towns are required to implement the following urban reforms, by making eligibility for funding conditional on such changes.

1. Implementation of decentralisation measures as envisaged in the Constitution (Seventy-Fourth Amendment) Act to establish elected ULGs as institutions of self-government.
2. Adoption of modern, accrual-based double entry system of accounting in ULGs.
3. Passage of a "public disclosure law" to ensure preparation of medium-term fiscal plans of ULGs and release of quarterly performance information to all stakeholders.
4. Passage of a "community participation law" to institutionalise citizen participation and introducing the concept of the Area Sabha in urban areas.
5. Transferring all special agencies that deliver civic services in urban areas to ULGs over a period of five years and creating accountability platforms for all urban civic service providers in transition.
6. Introduction of e-governance using IT applications like Geographical Information Systems and Management Information Systems for various services provided by ULGs.
7. Reform of property tax with GIS, so that it becomes a major source of revenue for ULGs and arrangements for its effective implementation to ensure that collection efficiency reaches at least 85 per cent within the next five years. Complete revamping of the property tax system through detailed data gathering process, tracking and monitoring system.
8. Levy of 'reasonable' user charges by ULGs on many services that are currently free, with the objective of recovering the full cost of Operations and Management within the next five years.

Many of these proposals are to ensure functional autonomy for local bodies as much as possible. JNNURM also takes care of all related aspects like transportation, environment management and land use. Under the mission local bodies are supposed to draw up city development plans that are JNNURM-compliant and once that is finalised the state, Centre and the identified cities would enter into a tripartite agreement. When local bodies agree to the conditions laid out, do they take into account public participation or do they have the approval of the ultimate stakeholders? If these grey areas are cleared, JNNURM can definitely transform our cities and lift the living standard of its citizens.

 

Urban Infrastructure

Keeping the revamp process on board, Union Urban Development Ministry has cleared more than 100 projects for urban infrastructure component under the mission since its inception. These projects included 12 mission works costing between Rs.100 to Rs.500 crore. The Ministry has also received city development plans from 56 cities out of which 40 have been appraised and 16 are under appraisal.

Ministry has signed Memoranda of Agreement with 22 cities for the implementation of reform agenda to be adhered to by the states and local bodies. It has received 283 detailed project reports from 17 states covering 35 cities.
The government has committed the central assistance to the extent of Rs.2289.91 crore, out of which Rs.551.52 crore have been approved for release in respect of 88 projects.

Under the Basic Services to Urban Poor component of the JNNURM, Union Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry have sanctioned 68 projects worth over Rs 4,476 crore out of which the central share is over Rs. 2359 crore. The first installment amount is Rs.589.82 crore of which Rs.252.65 crore have been released by the Finance Ministry and the rest will be cleared soon. In 22 Mission cities, projects for construction of around 2, 58,656 dwelling units have been sanctioned so far.

 

Asia Pacific Conference

Inaugurating first Asia-Pacific ministerial conference on housing and human settlements on the 13^th of December 2006, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja told delegates that the government had launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission for a focused approach towards housing, slum development and basic services to the poor.

After debating issues relating to 'pro-poor urban governance and planning, water and sanitation, slum up gradation, urbanisation and financial matters, the Asia Pacific Meet adopted  “Delhi Declaration” to develop strategies and policies for slum prevention and up gradation, affordable housing and habitat development and to share and exchange knowledge on land and housing besides poverty alleviation.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and not necessarily reflect the views of PIB. 

(Release ID :23578)

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