Conference on Urban Sector Reforms

Bhopal, Apr 25 (UNI) The fact that Gujarat, Assam, Tripura, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have enacted the Public Disclosure Law gives a fair understanding of the zeal in implementing reforms as charted under the roadmap of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), launched on December 3, 2005.

''Gujarat, Assam and Andhra Pradesh have enacted the Community Participation Law. Maharashtra, it has been indicated, is in the advanced stages of enacting the same,'' Union Secretary (Urban Development) M Ramachandran said here today at a conference on 'Urban Sector Reforms and Infrastructure -- The Way Ahead'.

The Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act had been repealed in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Following this, the reform would have been accomplished in all states and Union territories, except West Bengal and Jharkhand, a release said.

''Seventeen cities -- including Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Kolkata -- have undertaken accounting reforms and have fully migrated to the double-entry accrual-based accounting system and a few more cities are shifting to the same from this month,'' the bureaucrat added.

Thirty-four cities -- including Rajkot, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Indore -- have made provisions for Internal Earmarking of Funds for Basic Services to Urban Poor.

''Nine cities -- including Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Coimbatore and Madurai -- have achieved 85 per cent coverage in Property Tax and ten cities -- including Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Madurai and Coimbatore -- have also achieved 90 per cent collection efficiency,'' Mr Ramachandran added.

The JNNURM reforms portfolio could be broadly classified into Governance Reforms, Land and Property Reforms, Reforms for Financial Sustainability and Process/Citizen Responsive Reforms.

Governance Reforms included implementation of decentralisation measures as envisaged in the Constitution's 74th Amendment Act and transfer of activities under the 12th Schedule.

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