Plan panel puts off JNNURM extension

Urban Development Ministry’s bid to expand the flagship Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has been stalled by the Planning Commission.

The UD Ministry wanted to extend the JNNURM - the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s scheme to upgrade infrastructure in urban India - to 28 more cities. But the Planning Commission has cited “resource constraints” as the reason to stall this expansion. 

“Our ministry did not get the approval for introducing the Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) component of the JNNURM in these cities,” Minister of State for UD Saugata Roy told Business Standard. 

The Planning Commission’s decision opposing the expansion will mainly hurt the Opposition ruled states.

The list prepared by the UD ministry that was sent for the Planning Commission’s approval contains 28 cities across 12 states, all having a population of 500,000 and above.

Of these 12 states, eight are ruled by the Opposition. These are, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Two Congress-ruled states (Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh) and UPA-ruled Tamil Nadu will not be able to access additional JNNURM funds for more cities. 

Top officials in the Urban Development Ministry said that Planning Commission had cited various big-ticket projects in the social and rural sector to set aside the JNNURM expansion plan. 

The Planning Commission has directed that the expansion of JNNURM be put off for the next five-year plan rather than during the remaining period of the 11th Plan. “It may be taken up during the 12th Plan period,” said an UD official. 

The UD ministry currently has a budget outlay of Rs 31,500 crore for the UIG, Saugata Roy said. 

Currently, the JNNURM has projects in 65 cities across the country. It includes all state capitals and seven cities with 4 million population and 28 cities with 1 million population. 

The list of cities with 5 lakh and above population that was proposed for JNNURM schemes included Guntur, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Amaravati (president Pratibha Patil’s hometown), Cuttack, Jodhpur, Thiruchirapalli, Moradabad, Gorakhpur Mangalore among others.