Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday demanded that the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) be made State specific and States be allowed to identify and implement feasible urban projects under the scheme.
Patanik made the demand during his meeting with Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu at New Delhi. Naidu assured to modify the guidelines for ensuring greater decentralisation of the scheme.
Patnaik suggested that basic entitlement of each State be worked out based on different parameters such as urban population and performance grants linked to urban reforms.
The Chief Minister also suggested Naidu to effect modification in the additional Central assistance linked to reforms under JNNURM to make it uniform 10 per cent in case of both the components of Urban Infrastructure Governance (UIG) and Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT).
Observing that the JNNURM in its present form denies freedom to the States to identify appropriate projects for different cities, Patnaik said major benefits under the scheme accrue to States with large cities which have a greater capacity to absorb funds and not to the States having smaller cities like Odisha.
Patnaik sought an early release of first installment of additional Central assistance for enabling the State to undertake Bus Rapid Transit System in Bhubaneswar.
Stating that there are pending claims amounting to Rs 104 crore under the UIG and Rs 39 crore under UIDSSMT, Patnaik urged Naidu to release the amount at the earliest.
He also drew the attention of the Union Minister to the pending proposals of the State, including water supply projects for Brahmapur Phase-II, Storm Water Drainage project for Jajpur Town and City Bus Service for Rourkela-Biramitrapur and Bolangir-Patnagarh under JNNURM and requested for early sanction of the projects.
Pointing out that only six cities of Odisha are covered under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), Patnaik requested Naidu to sanction additional 35 cities under the RAY scheme.
He also urged the Union Minister to sanction remaining 73 Urban local Bodies under National Urban livelihood Mission (NUlM) and amend NUlM guidelines by providing for a community organizer for 2,000 BPl households in place of the existing norm of a community organizer for 3,000 BPl households for effective monitoring of Urban Poverty Alleviation Programmes.
According to official sources, Union Urban Development Minister Naidu assured the Chief Minister that all pending projects and claims will be processed at the earliest.
Naidu assured that the issues raised by Chief Minister Patnaik would be “given priority and efforts would be made to modify the guidelines of JNNURM and NURlM for ensuring greater decentralisation and equitable distribution of resources among different States.