The Times of india  03.09.2010

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh, which is the highest beneficiary under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), is now facing fund crunch to complete the pending projects.

There are 17 projects related mostly to drinking water and storm water drain taken up under Urban Infrastructure Development of Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) in various municipalities.

According to an official in the commissioner and directorate of municipal administration (CDMA), the total cost of these 17 projects is over Rs 727.30 crore. Of this government of India's share is over Rs 550 crore and the Urban Local Bodies' (ULBs) share is Rs 150 crore. The central government has informed that it cannot release any more funds to the state. The ULBs are facing fund crunch and even though the state was willing to meet the ULBs share, since the Centre has refused to release any further funds, the projects are likely to go into a state of limbo.

The official said that the chief minister had written a letter to the Centre seeking release of funds recently. However, the Centre informed the state government that "Andhra Pradesh has exhausted its 7-year allocation under the UIDSSMT and government of India is not in a position to sanction fresh allocations to the state."

The ongoing schemes, which are now likely to suffer, are storm water drain and satellite township scheme project in Vikarabad, estimated to cost over Rs 30 crore. The storm water drain project in Machilipatnam costs over Rs 50 crore. Other pending projects are drinking water projects in Sadashivpet in Medak district costing Rs 30 crore and in Gadwal in Mahbubnagar with Rs 34 crore.

Since the inception of JNNURM, a total of 268 projects were taken up with an amount of Rs 12,525 crore and the Centre's share was 6,985 crore. There are still 38 projects worth Rs 3,392 pending for sanction with the government of India, said the official.

The officials concerned are hoping that Union minister for urban development S Jaipal Reddy would intervene and help them in getting additional funds.

The Financial Express  02.09.2010

Chandigarh: In a bid to decentralise the process of urban development, the Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday gave in principle approval to extend the jurisdiction of six developmental authorities of Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and Bathinda to cover the entire state.

A decision to this effect was taken by Badal during a meeting with the chief administrators of various authorities held here.

Taking part in the deliberations, Badal asked PUDA to soon launch a housing scheme for rural poor to provide them free residential houses in the state. He also gave approval to develop urban estate over 139 acre of land in Gurdaspur.

It was also decided in the meeting that development authorities would now provide the services to the public at the local level for the change of land use, licensing of colonies, completion certificates, besides the disposal of grievances of plot holders and regulating process of urban development in the respective areas. Decentralisation of development authorities would also enable the concerned officers to focus their attention on the integrated growth of the areas in a cohesive manner, earlier it was difficult for officers at Chandigarh to take care the entire state.

Badal also directed the chief administrators of various evelopment authorities to ensure strict implementation of the master plans in the towns and cities under their jurisdiction to give further impetus to the planned urban development in the state.

He hopes that these master plans would not only ensure the integrated and planned development of these cities but also stall their unplanned and haphazard growth.