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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | JNNURM: A balance sheet by M Ramachandran

JNNURM: A balance sheet by M Ramachandran

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published Published on Jan 17, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 17, 2011
Five years ago, the Prime Minister launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), calling it the single-largest initiative of the government of India for a planned development of our cities. This unique, Rs 50,000-crore (subsequently enhanced to Rs 66,000 crore) programme to be implemented over a seven years from 2005 to 2012 focuses mainly on 65 mission cities with provision kept also for other small towns. While the mission, to quote the Prime Minister, has to walk on the two legs of improved urban infrastructure and improved urban basic services, the role of governance reforms should be to catalyse the process that enables both these to move forward.

As the mission has covered five years and only 14 months remain for its completion, it should be worthwhile to take stock as to where we stand with regard to implementation of the 23 reforms, worked out in consultation with the states and committed to by states and cities through memoranda of agreement to be implemented as per periodic milestones agreed. The reform agenda, covering four broad areas like governance, citizen-responsive and process-oriented , land and property-related and financial , was widely welcomed because before the mission, the cities were not in a position to take up these much-needed reforms even if they wanted and it was high time that a push for these came from somewhere. There may not be any other flagship programme that walks on the two legs of reforms and funds for projects. And this stands out as a unique feature of the urban programme.

Governance reforms cover implementation of the 74th Constitution Amendment , transfer of city planning function to the local bodies, administrative as well as structural reforms and encouraging PPP, all to be undertaken by state governments, and revision of municipal bylaws and provision of basic services, to the urban poor to be implemented by the city bodies. The second category of reforms is process-oriented and citizen-responsive such as adoption of double entry system of accounting, introduction of the system of e-governance, both to be taken up by the local bodies, whereas rationalisation of stamp duty to a uniform 5% across the country, enactment of public disclosure and community participation laws are the state mandate.

Land- and property-related reforms cover reform of property tax and earmarking at least 20% to 25% of developed land for weaker sections, both to be done at the city level, whereas the state has to take steps to introduce computerised process of registration, repeal of urban land ceiling, amendment of rent control and introduction of property title certification. The fourth category of reforms aim at financial sustainability such as levy of reasonable user charges and city-wide property tax coverage and collection.

After about five years of implementation and with only little over a year left for the mission’s completion, the harsh reality is that while a moderate implementation of reforms has taken place, many states and cities lag behind in completing milestones, thereby raising questions as to how seriously are the states committed to these much needed reforms and with such delays and somewhat lack of seriousness, will our cities be able to move in tune with the huge requirements of today and tomorrow.

Overall, while states like West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala seem to have made good progress in keeping up with timelines for reform implementation, progressive states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat do not qualify to be in this list because they lag behind in respect of one reform namely rent control or community participation legislation. A state like Tamil Nadu could not meet the stamp duty rationalisation target and amending the rent control law as well as legislating for community participation.

Among reforms, community participation legislation, rent control amendment and transfer of city planning function appear as the most ‘complicated’ ones for implementation to the states as 18, 15 and 14 states respectively have not been able to meet this reform milestone.

Among cities, Hyderabad and Vizag in Andhra Pradesh; Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara in Gujarat; Bhopal and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Pune and Nanded in Maharashtra; Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu; Kolkata and Asansol in West Bengal; and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh have been able to perform well. At the other end of the scale are cities like Ludhiana, Mathura, Ajmer, Shillong, Jabalpur and Itanagar. What is causing concern is that e-governance, which should have been in the forefront in terms of better service to the citizens, seems to have taken a back seat, with as many as 32 cities failing to adhere to this timeline. It does not seem justified that as many as 12 states including Punjab could not so far legislate on public participation.

Many of the concerns raised by the PM in his launching address may continue to remain so if states and cities do not make a focused effort to implement the huge balance reforms during the remaining part of the mission. If the present pace continues, an enhanced JNNURM allocation during the forthcoming Twelfth Plan could become a casualty.

Along with reforms, we also need to keep in mind that out of the 527 infrastructure projects sanctioned so far for the 65 mission cities costing about Rs 60,000 crore, only 81 have got completed so far, that too in only eight states, maximum being in Gujarat (27 out of 70 projects). Three cities, namely, Panaji, Jamshedpur and Porbunder, have still not been able to come on board as far as getting at least one project approved is concerned.

It is time for the NDC appointed group of chief ministers to have a hard look at how best to complete the reform agenda by March 2012, for the state CMs to personally guide the process of reform completion and for the city residents to actively get involved to see to it that their cities reform and rise up to the expectations of the path-breaking mission.

(The author is former secretary, Urban Development , Government of India)

The Economic Times, 15 January, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/7289385.cms


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