Nagarothana second phase launched in 13 districts: Minister

Minister for Municipal Administration and Wakf Qamar-ul Islam has said that the Rs. 1,810-crore second phase of Chief Minister’s Nagarothana programme for improving infrastructure facilities in urban local bodies has been launched in 13 of the 30 districts and in the remaining districts, the process of floating tenders and other formalities are in the final stages.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr. Islam said that the second phase of the programme would cover 211 urban civic bodies, including city municipal councils (CMCs), town municipal councils (TMCs), town panchayats (TPs) and notified areas. While the city municipal councils in district headquarters would be provided with Rs. 30 crore each for development schemes, those located outside district headquarters would receive Rs. 15 crore for the purpose. The TMCs, TPs and notified areas would be given Rs. 5 crore each for such projects, he said.

Mainly, roads and drainage system would be taken up with the Nagarothana funds. The city corporations, which were covered under the Chief Minister’s package for tier-II cities, had not been included under Nagarothana programme. Urban local bodies in Gulbarga district would be getting Rs. 55 crore each as assistance for road and drainage system work, he said.

To a question, Mr. Islam said that owing to popular demand, the government had decided to extend the Bidayi programme of sanctioning Rs. 50,000 as marriage expenses for one girl in economically weaker families to Christians, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists, apart from the Muslim community, he said.

Mr. Islam announced that the government had finally approved the World Bank assisted 24x7 drinking water supply scheme, covering Gulbarga, Belgaum and Hubli-Dharwad city corporations, in full. While the scheme would be taken up in Gulbarga at a cost of Rs. 635 crore, in Belgaum it would be worth Rs. 663 crore and Hubli-Dharwad city corporation Rs. 1,146 crore. While the World Bank would provide 50 per cent of cost, the city corporations would have to contribute 35 per cent and the State government 15 per cent, he said.