Speaking on the occasion Urban Development Minister Mr. Kamal Nath highlighted the daunting challenges of urbanization in India and stressed on the need to facilitate the process of efficient urbanization. The Minister stated that the report on urbanization issues seeks to strengthen the process of democratic decentralization by making urban local bodies more responsive and closer to the people. He said, “ this is essential for the creation of economically vibrant, inclusive, efficient and sustainable urban habitats”.
Mr. Nath stressed that for ensuring effective governance urban local bodies must become efficient, responsive, citizen friendly, transparent and accountable. To achieve this they need to be empowered by devolving funds, functions, and functionaries.
All members of the committee emphasized the importance of capacity building. The report proposes establishment of Municipal cadres in each State. Also capacity building should focus on the elected representatives. As capacity building is a long term process, the urban institutions and centers of excellence should be strengthened.
The Urban Development Minister said that the report acknowledges the poor financial state of Indian municipalities and proposes that the financial jurisdiction of the ULBs should be clearly defined in the constitution itself. The local bodies should have a fiscal responsibility framework for ensuring proper fiscal discipline. The report recommends that the local bodies must explore innovative means to raise resources such as monetization of land. Public Private Partnership and Viability Gap Funding must be encouraged. As a part of the strategy to improve the urban planning approach, the report suggests a 3-tier integrated spatial development Plans comprising district/metropolitan development plan at regional level, development plan at city level and zonal/ward plan at local level as local area plan.
The meeting was attended by Kumari Selja, Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty alleviation, Chief Minister of Haryana Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda , Chief Minister of Assam Mr. Tarun Gogoi , Urban Development Ministers from Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, , Karnataka, and West Bengal, Sh. Arun Maira Member, Planning Commission, representatives from states of Maharashtra and Orissa ,as well as senior officers from the Union and the States.
The National Development Council in it’s meeting in July 2010, constituted a Sub- Committee on Urbanization headed by the Union Minister of Urban Development with chief ministers of some states as members to deliberate upon challenges of urbanization. The first meeting of the sub - committee was held on 3rd March, 2011 in New Delhi. During the meeting the overall framework was laid and the sub-committee constituted an expert group for drafting the report, which was circulated to all member states in November 2011. The expert group of the NDC constituted seven expert groups viz. Governance, finance, transport, urban poverty, capacity building, environment and strategic urban planning. These groups consisted of senior government servants of the states and leading academics and experts working in the urban sector.
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