Maha CM urges Centre to remove bottlenecks in JNNURM

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis today urged the Centre to resolve issues regarding the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission even as he hoped to complete the pending projects that were initiated under JNNURM.
"As of now, JNNURM is over but there are many issues related to the scheme which the Central government needs to address. Because I feel the projects undertaken under the mission cannot be left like that. We need to complete them," Fadnavis said.
The chief minister was speaking at Consultative Workshop on Urban Governance organised here by the Central government and was also attended by Union Urban Development minister Venkaiah Naidu.

Fadnavis said the state has always been in the forefront for urban governance and wants to bring in more reforms to make cities more sustainable, livable and smarter.
"Even while having projects under the JNNURM in our bouquet, we could push the reforms (for new projects). Although a lot needs to be done, I feel a number of reforms have already been implemented by various agencies. But, we want to do more. Being a highly urbanised state, we look forward for greater cooperation from the Centre," he said.
He said the Centre will have to work closely with states to understand their problems and to formulate a way forward.

Fadnavis added that nearly 50 per cent of the state's population lives in 265 cities while the remaining dwells across 40,000 villages in Maharashtra.
"In this scenario, I feel urban governance is a key issue. If we really want to improve the urban governance, we need to conceive a project which is holistic. If we only conceive a project where Centre would mandate few reforms and share some capital investment, that would not suffice.
"If cities have to grow and become better, smarter and sustainable, then we need to work on capacity building," he said.