The much-touted Centre-sponsored National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM) meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday will neither have the Union Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy nor the Union Urban Development secretary.
The much-touted Centre-sponsored National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM) meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday will neither have the Union Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy nor the Union Urban Development secretary.
All major centres across the country would see ministers and officials from various states exchanging projects to take forward the ambitious scheme that is aimed at changing the face of metros and major townships in India.
But as both of them will not attend the meeting, protocol makes it impossible for Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh (also the minister for Urban Development) to attend the meeting.
According to a senior officer, the meeting will now take place at the joint secretary levels. The other states representing the workshop are Gujarat, Chhatisgarh and Goa.
The Maharashtra government is also irked by the Centre’s decision to question the Rs38,000 crore proposal forwarded under the NURM programmes for the three cities - Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. The state has outlined the draft proposal for other two townships under the NURM scheme – Nanded and Nashik.
Highly placed sources in the government say officials in Delhi (read urban development ministry) are not very pleased as it feels they are recycling the old date compiled with the help of reports accessed from World Bank and private non-government organisations (NGOs), which are closely associated with Mumbai.
The state fears too much nitpicking in the proposals will delay its claim for Central projects. Officials here are quick to point out the step-motherly treatment meted to Maharashtra post-July 26 deluge.
But Union Minister in PMO Prithviraj Chavan has repeatedly dismissed the charge. According to him, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has development of Mumbai and the state uppermost on his mind. Recently on two occasions, Chavan interacted with the industry captains and the state government to find out issues that confront the state’s development.
Though the state government is ready to give commitments sought from the Centre as a pre-condition to release funds under the NURM schemes, the biggest hurdle in its way is the repealing of Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULC).
Public litigations opposing the scrapping of ULC have also added to the state’s headache.
As a state minister said, “Deshmukh is again tight-lipped on the no free- housing policy. He intends to discuss the issue with leaders of all political parties and legislatures to evolve a consensus on the subject.”
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