Centre's slum plan allocation doubles

Even as representatives from the Central government and various state governments, municipal corporations and municipalities deliberated in Ahmedabad on various measures that can be adopted to make the National Slum Development Programme (NSDP), the Central government has almost doubled the allocation for the NSDP scheme this fiscal.

Chitra Chopra, principal secretary, union ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation (UEPA), said that while the allocation for the NSDP programme was Rs 363 crore for the previous fiscal, the Union government has almost doubled this to Rs 700 crore this fiscal.

"This is one of the scheme where there is a near 100 per cent usage of funds that have been allocated," she said on Tuesday in Ahmedabad.

Renana Jhabvala of the Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust (MHT) said so far almost all the funds allocated under the NSDP have gone into major cities such as Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot, but this has to go to other smaller towns too, as it is mandatory that funds under the NSDP have to be used under the community contracting system.

Gujarat Municipal Finance Board chief executive officer J G Hingrajia said while 68 cities and towns of Gujarat have already been covered under the Slum Networking Programme, another 70 towns will be covered by the end of the current fiscal.

"The state government has spent Rs 96 crore so far on these projects and will spent another Rs 27 crore by the end of the current year," he added.

Hingrajia stated that under the scheme, the focus is on providing water, sewerage facilities, roads, street lights and toilets.

"More than 300 pockets of slums have benefited through the scheme so far," he said.

For instance, in Ahmedabad, where between 30 per cent and 35 per cent of the population lives in slums, there have been just 30 slums that have been covered under the Slum Networking Programme (SNP) of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

The programme, which has been in place for almost six years now, has identified around 500 slums to be brought under the SNP.

The objectives of the convention, held in Ahmedabad over the past two days, were to review the achievements and opportunities available at the national level and to take stock of the progress made in context of finance, governance, involvement of local communities and to suggest modifications in the policy.

Officials of the housing and urban development departments of various states and municipal corporations shared their experiences on the subject.