large numbers of urban local bodies (UlBs) are languishing due to little funds available for funding basic infrastructure as the Union Government has closed such funding facilities for last four years.
More than 100 UlBs in Odisha are in dire straits and crying for funds as there is hardly any Central assistance made available for the urban areas having less than one lakh population.
Out of 110 UlBs, only nine towns are having population of more than one lakh and these urban areas are covered under Atal Mission For Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).
While nine AMRUT towns are covering 28.5 lakh populations, rest 100 towns are covering a further population of over 28 lakh.
As these 100 towns are having less than one lakh population, they are not getting any funds for infrastructure development since 2014. These small and medium towns not covered under AMRUT, which require development of urban infrastructure, water supply, sewerage, septage management and other basic requirements.
So the State Government has recently urged the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) to fund the urban zones with a scheme having 80 per cent support of the Union Government and rest 20 per cent to be borne by the State Government, said a senior official in Department of Housing and Urban Development (DoHUD).
Similarly, there is hardly any funding for urban transport in the AMRUT towns as funding priority is set at No.4 after water supply, sewage and drainage. Since huge funds are required for the above three priority areas, no further scope is left for undertaking urban transport projects, admit officials.
City Bus Service (CBS) was introduced in JnNURM with 80: 20 funding for which the Union Government provided Rs15.84 crore for Bhubaneswar and Puri.
Although the Centre sanctioned the CBS for Cuttack-Choudwar Cluster, Koraput-Jeypore Cluster and Bhadrakh-Baleswar Cluster, no Central assistance was made available for other towns and the Central scheme was closed in 2014. After AMRUT was launched, funds flow for urban transport has eroded with low priority for the sector.
Now, the State Government is handling CBS and urban mobility issues from its own funding, which is also not enough to to meet the growing requirement, admit officials. Under this backdrop, several State Governments including Odisha have urged the MoUD to introduce a separate Central scheme to address the issues of CBS and development of infrastructure in the UlBs.