Urban local bodies in mess, says minister

Urban local bodies are in a "mess", Minister for Urban Housing and Poverty Alleviation Venkaiah Naidu said here today and asked the states and union territories to come up with details of their cities, especially the financial condition and available resources.
Emphasising the need for 'people-centred urban planning', he said the huge private investments required for new urban development and housing initiatives can be mobilised only through quick, accountable and transparent decision making.
He urged the states and UTs to learn from the experiences of implementation of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for better planning and execution of urban housing and development projects.

"Let's admit, our urban local bodies are in a mess and not in a position to meet the new challenges," Naidu said addressing a meeting of Secretaries of Urban Development of states and Union Territories.
He, however, added that his observation is not against any political party or state government.
"I am not targeting any particular urban local body (ULB) or state because the situation is same, more or less everywhere. There are ULBs controlled by BJP also," he said.

He said resources are limited and ULBs are reluctant to raise resources.
Naidu said states and UTs should come out with White Papers in respect of each city with details of revenues, expenditure, availability of land, water and power, projects under implementation and proposed with resource requirement, tax structure and proposed enhancement to enable informed people's participation in urban development.

Deficiencies in urban governance should be addressed through institution and capacity building, effective management of land and other utilities, governance reforms, empowering urban local bodies to make them effective institutions of urban governance and smart administrative and political leadership, he said.
He felt the need for a specialised municipal cadre to ensure quality municipal administration. He also suggested that there should be a special module on municipal administration as a component of training of IAS officers.