Dedicated municipal cadre to be made compulsory for states

The Centre is planning to make setting up of a dedicated municipal cadre by states a mandatory condition if they intend to get urban development funds under the flagship JNNURM scheme.
Noting that there was "a complete collapse in some areas of urban governance", Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath emphasised on the need to build capacity in municipal bodies and added that having municipal cadre officers is the key to this end.
"In the new JNNURM, we are going to make it compulsory for state governments to have a dedicated municipal cadre. Today if you want to train somebody, he gets trained after two years and moves to another department," Nath said at a conference on 'Innovations in Urban Governance'.

He said there is a need to ensure capacity building at organisational and human levels and to set up institutes.
"You find no planners. You find people from veterinary department posted to municipalities. Or if you are familiar with this, you find people who have no stake, no ownership in the governance of municipalities. They are there because they want to live in that place, town or city.
"They have no interest in the work they do, they have no skills, they have no training," Nath said.

The minister batted for change in administrative rules and delineating clear areas for accountability for elected representatives.

"You have elected representatives who have reached that position through a democratic process and you have administrative process and these do not find convergence in many of the areas," Nath said.
"This blurred line between elected representatives and officers is again something which needs to find convergence. Because we see a complete collapse in some areas of urban governance because of this blurred line," he added.