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Our Bureau

New Delhi , Dec. 3

THE Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today launched the Rs 1 lakh-crore Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) aimed at improving urban infrastructure and urban basic services in over 60 cities with a million-plus population, all State capitals and some cities of religious, historical and tourist importance.

"A major failure of city governance has been our inability to address the needs of the poor — basic services such as drinking water supply, sanitation, housing and social services are not available to an increasing share of urban population," Dr Singh said while launching the new programme.

Mooting that options such as giving urban poor land rights at affordable rates may see an increase in private investment, he said this, in itself, would improve the quality of living in cities. "Property rights can also be used as collateral for financing new investment," he said. The Prime Minister said that rapid urbanisation had not only outpaced infrastructure development but also brought in its train a terrible downslide of slums, homelessness, urban poverty and crime, pollution and ecological damage.

RENEWED EFFORT: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, with the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission , Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, at the lunch of the `Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission' in the Capital on Saturday. — Kamal Narang

"Our cities have not been able to cope with the pressures of industrial development and the growth of the services economy. In many cities such as Bangalore, the phenomenal growth of the services sector in the past decade has exerted unexpected pressure on urban infrastructure and services," he said, calling for remedial steps to tackle the situation.

"To improve urban infrastructure and provide urban services for the poor, we urgently need urban governance reform," he told the gathering, which included Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and senior officials.

The mission is aimed at giving focused attention to the integrated development of urban infrastructure and services, with special emphasis on provision of basic services to the urban poor, including housing, water supply, sanitation, slum improvement, community toilets and bath. Improving the efficiency of city governance through public participation and disclosure is also an objective of the programme. The list of cities being covered initially under the mission include some of historical and tourist importance such as Varanasi, Amritsar, Haridwar and Ujjain.

A combined investment by Central Government, State Governments and the urban local bodies of over Rs 1 lakh crore is proposed to be spent on this programme in the next seven years. Of this, Centre's share is expected to be about Rs 50,000 crore. In the current fiscal, a budget provision has already been made for about Rs 5,000 crore.

State governments and urban local bodies would be required to sign a Memorandum of Agreement with the Central Government, giving an undertaking to implement the reform agenda. Fund releases would be linked to assessment of the implementation of reform agenda. The mandatory reforms at the State level include Repeal of Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act, reform of rent control laws, and rationalisation of stamp duty to bring it down to up to 5 per cent within seven years. Similarly, reforms have to be undertaken at the level of municipalities.

The mission would be guided by a National Steering Group (NSG) chaired by the Urban Development Minister and co-chaired by the Minister of State for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation.

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PM launches urban mission — `Property rights can be used as collateral for financing new investment'

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