The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Reforms execution lax in some States: Mohanty

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Reforms execution lax in some States: Mohanty

Staff Reporter

Says, funds remain unspent most of the time

According to Census 2001, there are 62 million urban poor
Pat for State for allocating 40 p.c. municipal budget for poor

HYDERABAD: State governments, barring a few, are lagging behind in implementation of reforms under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and funds earmarked under the initiative remain unspent most of the time, P.K. Mohanty, Joint Secretary and Mission Director of JNNURM says.

Urban managers

Addressing the inaugural session of the National Workshop on Urban Poverty Eradication Strategies on Friday, the former Municipal Commissioner of Hyderabad stressed the need to develop a cadre of urban managers and institutions of urban management for effective capacity building.“According to 2001 Census, the number of urban poor in India stood at 62 million. According to NSSO 2004-05, it was 81 million.

This number could be higher as only slums with over 60 households were taken into account,” he said dwelling on the enormity of the scourge.

Despite joint surplus to the tune of Rs.32,000 crore, the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority and the Municipal Corporation were clueless about what to do with the funds, he said while noting that about 54 per cent of Mumbai lived in slums.

Commending the Andhra Pradesh government for allocating 40 per cent of the municipal budget for the poor, Mr. Mohanty explained a few models of participatory development followed by various States.

Rajasthan earmarked 20 per cent of the developed land to the farmer from whom the land was acquired.

In Bhopal, it was mandatory for builders to allocate land for the poor in every layout. Kerala was in the forefront with its Kudumbasree experiment, while the performances by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu too were significant.

Poverty eradication, unlike other departmental programmes, required more empathetic approach, said Secretary of Local Self-Government of Kerala T.K. Jose. Growth should be slow and steady with reasonable gestation period while targets should be set in terms of the number of people reached rather than the funds spent.

Javed Akhtar, Secretary of Urban Development from Karnataka, felt that poverty could be tackled effectively only through urban local bodies and could not be handed over to private bodies.

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