Punjab flunks JNNURM test

The JNNURM scheme was launched in Punjab in December 2005 by union ministries of urban development and housing and urban poverty alleviation. Under JNNURM -I,schemes of Urban Infrastructure Governance (UIG) and Urban Infrastructure of Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) were launched and under JNNURM- II a scheme of Basic Service to Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) was launched. Though Punjab has been able to show some compliance for the various schemes under JNNURM -I,its utilization of funds under JNNURM -II is very poor. Punjab has utilised only 6 per cent of the over Rs 444 crore sanctioned to it since 2005 under BSUP,the lowest in the country.

“The scheme cannot be implemented in Punjab because the cost of land in the state is very high. Municipal bodies are not ready to part with expensive land for the construction of houses for the poor,” said chief secretary SC Aggarwal. Due to the state’s lukewarm response to the schemes,the amount of funds that it receives under the JNNURM has steadily decreased since 2005,with only a trickle now left for the ongoing schemes in Ludhiana and Amritsar. Funds for the new schemes proposed by the state government under JNNURM were refused by the Centre last year following which no new projects under the mission have been undertaken in the state.

Sources add that this has mainly to do with the fact that the state government has not implemented many of the mandatory reforms that go with the implementation of the scheme. JNNURM funding comes with riders asking states to undertake several urban reforms including an increase in property tax,imposition of user charges on water supply,sewerage,health services etc by the urban local bodies. Other than this the urban bodies have to show compliance of e-governance. The state is also expected to have a rent control act in place. Other than e-governance,none of these reforms are likely to be undertaken by the state in its election year. Sources add that planning commission members were told yesterday that the reform compliance of Punjab is not likely to improve this year as the state’s political heads would not impose any new taxes or increase the ones already in place.

“The revised draft rent control act which is ready for over an year is yet to be notified. Since the Act is supposed to negatively impact urban shopkeepers and tenants,the department of local bodies,headed by a BJP minister,Manoranjan Kalia is not notifying it fearing a dent to the BJP’s core vote bank in urban areas,” said an officer.