PM launches mission for ‘urban poor’

The Mission sprang out of the Prime Minister’s desire to convert Mumbai into a Shanghai and overhaul the infrastructure of India’s cities to make them attractive investment destinations.

The mission, which was originally known as just the National Urban Renewal Mission, will focus on providing affordable land, drinking water, sanitation, housing and social services to the urban poor.

Speaking at the launch, Singh said local governance needs to be reformed. “A major failure of city governance has been our inability to address the needs of the poor; basic services like drinking water, sanitation and housing services are not available to an increasing share of urban population,” he said.

The Prime Minister said a “uni-dimensional” approach was causing problems for urban development programmes. He added that the “focus needs to be more on space and less on people”.

“There is a need for an integrated framework in which spatial development of cities went hand in hand with improvement in the quality of living of ordinary people living there,” Singh said.

The Centre plans to create integrated development of urban infrastructure through the Mission, which covers 60 cities with a million-plus population. There would be special emphasis on providing basic services to the poor like housing, sanitation and slum improvement over a seven-year period.

All state capitals and cities that are important religious, historical and tourist centres will come under the programe, which has an annual allocation of Rs 5,500 crore.

The Mission looks to do away with provisions that affect the functioning of land and housing markets and make the city-level institutions financially strong and viable.

Looking to marry infrastructure development of cites with providing basic facilities to the urban poor, Singh said the latter could be given land rights at low rates to increase private investment. But he added, to improve “urban infrastructure and provide urban services for the poor, we urgently need urban governance reform”.

Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy said “major cities” suffered from “major inadequacies” in infrastructure and services. He said the Mission sought to correct this.