The second edition of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) which will be launched next year would adopt an aam admi centric approach in providing assistance to local bodies besides empowering them to make their own planning, according to the Planning Commission of India member Arun Maira.
Also the assistance under this programme will be available to any city that comes up with plans based on the local needs of the citizens irrespective of the size of population unlike in the past where it was restricted only to big cities, he said on Monday.
According to Maira, this Centrally-assisted urban development initiative will undergo drastic changes where the planning will be done locally based on the local needs with the due participation of citizens. Centre will now focus on training and capacity building exercise to make the local bodies competent enough to design programmes on sanitation, drinking water and urban housing among other things.
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"There are 3-4 principal modifications emphasising things which we believe are the foundations for better management of the urban development," he said on the sidelines of the 6th EuroIndia Summit which seeks to forge partnerships in sustainable development of cities.
Much more local planning in cities and towns, providing the necessary templates and skills to do the planning locally, expanding the definition of urbanisations to cover all the cities and greater emphasis on the needs of the poorest people such as water, sanitation, housing and public transport are going to be part of the new JNNURM, according to him.
The learnings from the deficiencies of the older programme will also help push the unfinished agenda of transferring functions and powers to local bodies as envisaged in the 74th Constitutional amendment through the second JNNURM, according to Maira.
Under the new programme the government is putting in place a very vibrant and dynamic training process to help local governments handle the tasks at hand using the technology as well as through partnerships so that there will be no excuse exist for some one above to do the planning on their behalf. Adding to this those MLAs and MPs, who are supporting the cause of local planning, are finding themselves more electable as the urban youth are strongly against the 'mai bap' culture in governance, according to him.
The aim of this mission would be to be able to provide sufficient urban services for 300 million more people who are expected to migrate to urban centers in the next one decade besides providing the same to the 350 million people who are living badly in the cities, he said.