Subir Roy’s column “JNNURM has been business as usual” (Value for Money, December 5) provides a cogent analysis of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM’s) failure to benefit substantially from its prime movers. The need for the survival of big cities and towns cannot be faulted. There is a continuous exodus from villages to urban cities, in search of a living and better lives. However, the pace of infrastructure (more housing, roads, educational and medical institutions, among others) does not match the needs generated by this growing population.
Pune – once a paradise for pensioners – is now close to a nightmare. The problems require coordinated participation of the Central and state governments and the local bodies. JNNURM rightly involved all the three. Its failure is yet another example of the inability of the Central government to convert good intention into good implementation. As the analysis of findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General would reveal in the instant case, it is the funding-without-accountability, the bureaucratic approach and lack of determined follow-up that have been the root causes.
Y G Chouksey Pune
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