Meet for more power to state finance commissions

Kochi, Apr 14: A national meet of urban development secretaries today stressed the need for state finance commissions to be armed with more powers to recommend devolution of finances to urban local bodies.

Briefing reporters here at the end of the two-day meet, Union Urban Development secretary M Ramachandran said the meet also stressed that the state finance commissions' recommendations should be by and large accepted and implemented by the governments.

The meeting, which was attended by the urban development secretaries of 20 states and Union Territories, also stressed the need for state finance commissions to properly articulate the needs of urban local bodies to the Central Finance Commission for adequate devolution of resources.

Stressing the need for states to seriously think of good public transport systems to ease the pressure on roads with the increasing number of private vehicles, Mr Ramachandran said the government had proposed to double the Central grant to states for undertaking urban transport studies to 80 per cent from the present 40 per cent. The proposal is presently before the Planning Commission, he said.

The meet also reviewed the implementation of the ongoing Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), under which the Centre is giving a grant of Rs 50,000 crore to states and urban local bodies over a seven-year period to improve urban life.

So far, 205 projects have been approved under the JNNURM involving a total cost of about Rs 17,000 crore. Of the 63 cities covered under the JNNURM, 62 had prepared their City Development Plans while the last one, by Panaji, was being prepared.

Also, 49 cities had signed the Memorandum of Agreement-Reform Agenda and implementation schedule set.

Describing the mission as the first of its kind and the largest urban programme initiated by the Centre, Mr Ramachandran said urban local bodies should seize the opportunity to use the funds available under this scheme to improve water supply, sewerage, roads/flyovers, drainage and solid waste management facilities in their areas.

Stating that the needs of the urban poor were emphasised by the JNNURM, Mr Ramachandran said corporations had been advised to allocate 20 per cent of their budget to the urban poor.

Stressing the need for improved urban civic infrastructure, he said the urban population was set to increase to almost 50 per cent in the next ten to 15 years.

UNI