Under the new urban development regime, States and Union Territories will have the full freedom to assess and approve new programmes unlike in the past when the departments concerned with urban development took these decisions.
It will also be compulsory for planners to consult urban citizens to provide a need-based thrust to all developmental activities.
States and Union Territories are being given a free hand in deciding their urban future. They will decide, with “full liberty and flexibility,” how various projects for urban rejuvenation and development are formulated and executed.
Taking note of the areas of failings in the previous urban development programmes, the “Central Government has virtually withdrawn from the earlier practice of appraising and sanctioning individual projects, thereby ending the scope for subjectivity and discretion,” said a statement on the new urban missions for Smart cities, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, and the mission for Housing For All from the Urban Development Ministry.
The States and Union Territories are now at liberty from the conception stage of the projects and the urban ministries “have sought to ensure timely sanction and execution and certainty of resources for various projects,” the statement from the Press Information Bureau said.
The new approach to urban development programmes stems from the experience with previous programmes. The government said that the implementation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission had “ended up in sub-optimal physical and financial performance” and that the Central Government had “radically overhauled the Operational Guidelines” for the execution of the new urban development missions.
While the urban mission for Housing For All will be implemented in all the 4,401 statutory cities and towns, the other programmes will be implemented on the basis of objective criteria.
Potential Smart cities and Atal Mission cities will be chosen giving importance to the criterion of population in the city and also after considering the number of statutory cities in the States and Union Territories.
Along with the freedom to decide on their mode of urban development, States and Union Territories will have to indicate how they planned to fund the programmes. “States and Union Territories will now be required to firmly indicate resource tie-ups under State-level action plan” to avoid delays or non-completion of projects for lack of resources. The Union government has indicated its intentions to provide Rs.100 crore per year to select Smart cities.
At the same time, no projects without land availability and clearances should be included in the Atal Mission. The Union government has said a firm ‘no’ to funds diversion and will insist on States transferring funds to urban local bodies within seven days of the money being released by the Union government.
The Centre will insist on States transferring funds to urban local bodies within seven days of the money being released
