To develop 271 cities and towns in the State, the Cabinet has approved Rs. 2,855 crore for the third phase of the Nagarothana scheme.
Also called the Chief Minister’s Small and Medium Town Development programme, this scheme will fund plans to develop tier two, three cities and smaller towns.
The government was planning to set aside only Rs. 2,093 crore for the purpose. “I pushed for Rs. 800 crore more,” Eshwar Khandre, Municipal Administration Minister, told presspersons here.
According to him, district headquarter towns, grade A towns, city municipal councils and town municipal councils, town panchayats, village panchayats upgraded to town panchayats, and newly created urban local bodies will get funds. Works will include drinking water supply, sewage, waste management, roads, drains, footpaths and traffic management.
Tenders will be called for soon and work will be taken up in a few months. “I will personally ensure quality work in the prescribed time limit,” Mr. Khandre said.
As much as 70 per cent of the work on the 2,050 projects taken up in 211 urban local bodies under Nagarothana phase two is completed.
The work will be completed before December this year, he said.
As many as 23 district headquarter towns, that are not government by city corporations, will get Rs. 35 crore each. A total of Rs. 805 crore will be spent on this.
The government will release Rs. 850 crore for 34 other city municipal councils, each getting Rs. 25 crore.
Town municipal councils will get Rs. 7.5 crore each, with the total funding at Rs. 592 crore. Upgraded towns will get Rs. 105 crore.
Newly created towns will get Rs. 150 crore. Other smaller towns will get Rs. 235 crore and older municipalities will get Rs. 118 crore, he said.
“The Chief Minister has assured Bidar of additional flood relief after we spent the interim relief of Rs. 50 crore,” Mr. Khandre said.
The Minister promised an inquiry into an alleged security lapse during the visit of the Chief Minister here. He was responding to questions that a media person had violated security protocol by travelling in the Chief Minister’s helicopter with a camera.
MLA Rahim Khan, Deputy Commissioner Anurag Tewari, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Pavan Kumar Malpati, probationary officer T. Bhoobalan and others were present.
