CPI(M) against renewal scheme

The CPI (M) has cited the conditionalities attached to the Rs 100,000-crore National Urban Renewal Mission announced by the prime minister earlier this week as evidence that the government is merely carrying out the agenda of the World Bank and USAID and that the mission will not really address the issue of urban poverty.

In an article in the forthcoming issue of People's Democracy, the CPI(M) said the mission was actually meant for big businesses which will acquire contracts to carry out the massive project.

It also says that the conditionalities imposed on municipalities about how they should privatise municipal and urban services seriously undermines the federal and democratic nature of decision-making in India.

"If the mission is allowed to go ahead in its present form, the nation will find itself trapped in an irreversible framework of unplanned, liberalised and privatised urban development and municipal services, with powers of state governments and public authorities severely undermined," the article says.

Besides, the mission is an executive programme, to be undertaken without any legislative backing or accompanying public debate, the article says.

"A series of executive and legislative actions taken recently in the Capital city of Delhi towards privatisation of its water supply and 'reform' of its municipal laws, as an integral part of the above process, are a clear illustration that these fears are firmly grounded in reality and of the very real dangers lying ahead," the article says.

Recalling that the Prime Minister's Office press release which links central financial assistance to the implementation of reforms by state bodies, the article says the crucial phrase is "commercial sustainability". This means that those who cannot pay the price of reform will not be eligible for its fruits.

The article also points out that most states are already preparing annual development plans covering water supply, sanitation, sewerage and urban transport.

"Under the NURM, however, an entirely new process is being set in motion that will supplant or supersede the current, often legislatively enacted, processes," the article says.

It says that a model municipal law (MML) has been drafted which all states are expected to copy. In Delhi, the effects of the law are already evident.

"Throwing open land development and housing construction to the private sector and even to FDI, making land-use and zoning patterns 'flexible' to suit the interests of the real estate mafia, seeking revision of environmental impact assessment procedures in line with the above, depriving the working class, the urban poor and slum dwellers of their lawful entitlements under existing laws, all have been undertaken by the Delhi government."

The article says that this legislation was actually begun by the NDA government and is being enthusiastically followed by the UPA government. The CPI (M) has declared its complete and unequivocal opposition to such a plan.