Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission – The first of its kind since independence.

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission – The first of its kind since independence.

The Ministries of Urban Development and Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, Government of India put togetherJNNURM, which is a massive Rs. 50,000 crore mission that focuses on integrated development of infrastructure services in cities and provision of basic services to the urban poor. The mission period is spread over seven years, 2005-2012, with63 qualifying cities and nine eligible sectors. The thrust of the JNNURM is also to ensure improvement in urban governance and service delivery and therefore envisages a set of mandatory reforms that the State Governments and the Urban Local Bodies shall have to enact as a prerequisite for accessing the Central assistance.

Janaagraha, based on its experiences, has been advocating two amendments to State Municipal Acts at various national, state and local government forums, which has resulted in their inclusion as mandatory reforms under JNNURM. These amendments are:

1. The first is what we are calling a “Nagara Raj Bill”, which gives every registered voter in urban areas a legitimate platform to participate in his/her neighbourhood through a concept called theArea Sabha that is imbedded within the Ward Committee structure. A draft bill has been prepared, including an Activity Mapping document like the Panchayati Raj one, for the 3 tiers of Municipality/ Ward Committee/ Area Sabha.

2. The second is a Model Disclosure Bill, which will require municipalities to disclose quarterly audited statements of performance.

Both the bills mentioned above have been drafted by Janaagraha.