at the budget allocation for the urban renewal mission and has told the
House standing committee it would not “sit quietly” but fight for more
funds from the finance ministry.
The aggressive
posture comes despite the poor progress of the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban
Renewal Mission, with only 127 of the 555 projects under its first phase
completed by the deadline of March 31, 2012.
A two-year extension has now been granted for the first phase while the government is revising the second phase of the mission.
The budget
allocation of Rs 8,870 crore for the mission comes to less than one per
cent of its requirement of Rs 50 lakh crore (for five years), as
assessed by a high-powered committee headed by Isher Judge Ahluwalia.
“We had asked for
more allocation but we have been given less…. We are not going to sit
quietly. The high-powered committee has assessed the requirement (at) Rs
50 lakh crore,” urban development secretary Sudhir Krishna has told the
standing committee, headed by Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav.
“We had also undertaken a study by McKinsey, which has also recommended the requirement of more or less Rs 50 lakh crore.”
Urban development
minister Kamal Nath has written to Planning Commission deputy
chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia, complaining about the budget
allocation.
The high-powered
committee agrees with the ministry. “Keeping in view the plight of urban
conditions in India, the increase of 11.77 per cent (compared with last
year’s budget allocation) is very nominal,” the committee noted.
“Taking into
account the rate of inflation between 2011-12 and 2012-13 (of) between 8
(and) 9 per cent, the increase of allocation is not more than 5 per
cent.”
The committee has rapped the ministry for the mission’s below-par performance.
Defending itself
in a written reply to the standing committee, the ministry blamed the
state governments for the slow progress. Under the mission’s rules, the
states have to upgrade their municipalities, increase property tax
collection, implement IT-based systems and carry out other reforms to be
eligible for financial assistance.
The ministry has
written that the progress of the projects has been affected by states’
inability to execute the reforms within the deadline as well as by their
failure to submit utilisation certificates for the funds received.
Ministry officials
have told the standing committee that guidelines for the second phase
of the mission would be finalised in the next six months.