NEW DELHI, Apr 27 : Mounting a scathing attack on the Urban Development Ministry for delay in finalisation of Smart City and National Urban Rejuvenation Mission projects, a parliamentary panel has asked the ministry to stop "adhocism" and firm up the plans in a time-bound manner.
The Standing Committee on Urban Development, headed by BJD MP Pinaki Misra, in its report submitted in Parliament today said it is constrained to note that JNNURM has finally come to an end on March 19, 2015 and the mission components of Smart City and National Urban Rejuvenation Mission are yet to be finalised by the government.
The committee is of the view that this is a futuristic programme so far as urban development planing is concerned.
"Therefore, delay in finalising this mission will give way to adhocism in the urban planning process," it said.
The committee asked the ministry to finalise the components and list of 100 smart cities within three months of the presentation of this report.
"At this pace the committee is of the opinion that long term futuristic plans for urban development was still a distant dream. Therefore, it wished to recommend the government to finalise the mission component in a time bound manner to stop adhocism," the report said.
The committee note that to handle large-scale urbanisation in India and finding new ways to manage complexity, increase efficiency reduce expenses and improve quality of life, the government has initiated a new scheme in 2014-15 to promote 100 smart cities.
However, the committee is distressed to note that even after passing of seven months of announcement of this mission on August 2014, the mission components and the list of smart cities are yet to be finalised.
The committee is of the view that the need of the hour is to strengthen the urban local bodies by enhancing the budgetary allocation of the Urban Development Ministry at revised estimate stage.
The committee has observed that during 2014-15, the allocation at budget estimate for the plan side is Rs 16,508.09 crore. This has been reduced to Rs 10,000 crore at revised estimate stage. The actual expenditure is Rs 7,913.14 crore.
The committee noted that Rs 2,086.09 crore has remained unutilised. The allocation at budget estimate during 2015-16 is Rs 16,832.20 crore. There is an increase of only Rs 324.11 crore, it said.
The committee is concerned to note that lowering of the revised estimate provision attributes to slow progress of the work pertaining to other ministries whose allocations have been included in the demands for grants of the Urban Development Ministry.
The panel is distressed to note that in many states important schemes like JNNURM, urban mobility, and urban development of North East states are not successful because of lack of capacity building of the urban local bodies.
"Many projects remained incomplete even after spending of thousands of crores. It was monumental wastage of public money," it said.
