Most municipalities lag in basic urban reforms, says govt report

NEW DELHI : At a time when cities across India are vying for the ‘smart’ tag, many have failed to implement key municipal reforms to ensure transparency and improve service delivery among residents. This was revealed in a report card of 500 cities selected under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), the central government’s urban upgrade scheme.

In June 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched AMRUT to revamp basic civic infrastructural facilities such as water supply, sewerage and urban transport across 500 cities.

The ~50,000-crore programme is linked to 11 mandatory municipal reforms that cities have to implement over a fiveyear period.

Each ULB will get ~20 crore annually, 10% of which is the incentive for meeting targets. States will lose out on the incentive if their urban local bodies (ULBs) – the closest governance system to citizens – fail to implement the reforms.

However, two years down the line, many of them have been found wanting. Of the 36 states and union territories, only 16 – comprising 330 ULBs – got the 10% incentive in 2016-17. Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu gave away awards to these states on June 23, the second anniversary of the scheme.

Of the 330 ULBs, only 40 – concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha – have rolled out a majority of the 11 reforms so far. Implementation in the remaining 290 ULBs has been patchy, at best.