The Hindu : New Delhi News : Nitish announces separate body for urban development schemes

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Friday, Nov 14, 2008
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Nitish announces separate body for urban development schemes

Corporation is expected to be set up by this fiscal end

Chief Minster assures that there would be no paucity of funds
Plan aimed to hasten urbanisation and development in Bihar

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday announced the constitution of a separate dedicated corporation for the implementation of urban development schemes in Bihar.

Inaugurating the Chief Minister Urban Development Scheme here, Mr. Kumar said urban local bodies receive monetary help for taking up different development schemes but in the changed situation and spurt in population the help had become insufficient.

Keeping this in mind the State Government has decided to constitute a separate dedicated corporation under the scheme and hoped that paraphernalia for setting up the corporation would be completed by this fiscal, he said.

Funds made available

The government had so far made available Rs. 100 crore under the scheme and there would be no paucity of funds for taking up urban development schemes under the plan in the coming years, he assured.

Mr. Kumar, who laid the foundation stones for 266 schemes for different urban local bodies of Patna district, said it had become a gigantic task to make the city free from water-logging and traffic snarls as it was not developed in a planned manner. Efforts were being made from the last year to make it free of the problem.

Referring to the importance of environment, Kumar said he wanted Patna to be known as the ‘city of children’ and with that in mind 169 spots have been identified for setting up children’s parks in different colonies. Addressing the function, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar said only 10 per cent of the State had been urbanised when the percentage in other States stood at 30 to 40 per cent.

The government would not dither in providing funds for bridging the gap between rural and urban development, he added. --PTI

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