FOR A BETTER LIFE
BMC to allot 25% of budget for urban poor……Sukhada Tatke
BMC to allot 25% of budget for urban poor……Sukhada Tatke
Mumbai: The BMC,the countrys richest municipal corporation,will have to now set aside at least 25% of its annual budget for rendering services to the urban poor.
The urban housing and poverty alleviation ministry,last month,directed all municipal bodies to allot a minimum of 25% of their annual budget and create a Basic Services to the Urban Poor Fund.
The November 4,2010,circular signed by secretary Kiran Dhingra,states that all municipalities should be committed to delivering basic services to the urban poor.The ministry said the fund allocation should be made from different municipal budgetary resources such as the municipalitys own sources of revenue like taxes,fees,user charges and rent.The municipalities can also use central or state finance commissions,contributions in cash,kind,gifts,aides from organizations,donations,grants from externally aided projects and sale of municipal assets.The BMCs budget for 2010-2011 is Rs 20,417 crore.
Officials said there was already a reform under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission called internal earmarking of 25% of municipal budget for providing basic services to the urban poor.However,implementation across the state was varied, says the new circular.So,a model amendment of Municipal Acts has been prepared with details on the utilization and preparation of the P-budget,maintenance of a separate bank account and so on, it states.The ministry has also specified the nature of services,which include water supply,drainage,construction of community toilets,solid waste management,parks,community centres,pre-primary and primary education centres and affordable housing.
However,advocate Shakil Ahmed of the Nirbhay Bano Andolan said 25% was too meagre an amount as the urban poor comprised 60% of the citys population.
Housing policy for poor remains a dream
Urban Development,Hsg Departments Pass The Buck On Who Should Implement The Plan
Thane: Nearly four years after former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh unveiled the state governments ambitious policy to usher in a new era in the housing sector,no progress seems to have been made in this regard.
Information sought by this newspaper,using the RTI Act on the policys progress so far,has revealed a complete absence of coordinated planning at the Mantralaya level in implementing the goals,meticulously authored by the then principal secretary (housing),Swadheen Kshatriya,in 2007.
The policy seems mysteriously orphaned,as the housing and the urban development departments together responsible for facilitating the policy implementation have disowned all responsibility towards it.Instead,they are locked in a passing-the-buck game,evident from their responses to TOIs query under the RTI Act.
Originally marked to the housing department,the RTI query concerning the achievement of the policys 10-point objectives was replied to on November 9.The letter said: The information sought concerns the urban development department (UDD).The application made under RTI,along with a copy of the state housing policy,is forwarded to the UDD for further reply.
The public information officer of the housing department directed the applicant that all future correspondence concerning the policy should be directed to the UDD.
The UDDs reaction was the same.The public information officer of the UDD,in his November 11 letter to this newspaper,pointed out that the issue was entirely the housing departments concern,and as such,the application had been forwarded to them for further action.
Interestingly,both these departments have for long been headed by the chief minister Deshmukh was the CM when the policy was introduced in 2007,followed by Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan.
Notwithstanding the high-profile head of the department and senior bureaucrats guiding the policy initiatives,the ambitious 2007 housing policy lies buried in bureaucratic red tape,as is clear from the tossing around of the RTI application by these two departments.
The key objectives of the policy were to create adequate housing stock for the poorest of the poor to rid cities of slums,create an infrastructure fund for cities,rationalize DC rules and approval procedures etc. It just shows how the state government functions.In paragraph 11,the policy document clearly states that the housing department will coordinate with the UDD for initiating policy reforms.However,no one seems interested.Like all other policies,this,too,was a bureaucratic exercise resulting in nothing for the common man, a top bureaucrat told TOI.
The policy,which was prepared by Kshatriya after months of long sessions with urban planners and housing experts,also talked at length about setting up a housing regulatory commission on the lines of the one for water and energy in the state to encourage foreign direct investments in the housing sector besides building homes in the rural pockets under an integrated plan.
When it comes to speedy implementation of housing policies for the common man,the political class and the bureaucracy work at their own pace.However,the speed with which rules were tweaked and laws broken to house the elite in Adarsh society shows the standards the states ruling class has fallen to, another official said.