Can the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission spark a development revolution? Yes, but…..
Sensible governance & politics!
A very interesting advertisement caught my eye last Sunday. A large ½-page ad in Hindustan Times announced the ‘Community Participation Fund’ that the government was offering to urban neighbourhoods across the country.
Simply put, residents of a neighbourhood can get together and ask for an amount upto Rs 10 lakhs, to address a local problem – maintenance of local drains, solid waste management, slum improvement, or whatever the people believe is important.
As a concept, this offer represents a milestone. For long, we have been used to complaining that the government and its officials are unresponsive, don’t address real issues, and money gets wasted. Here, now, is a ‘scheme’ that hands the funds over to citizens.
But, as with many other well-meaning programs( e.g. Rural Employment Guarantee), the real problem, once again, will be with the implementation. Simply reading the fine-print in the ad, and trying to navigate through the JNNURM website, here’s what I anticipate:
• Problem 1: Residents have to prepare a relevant project proposal with signed approval of 51% of voters in the local polling station(s)
(What’s the structure of the proposal that will satisfy the sanctioning authority? In the absence of a ‘template’ it’s a sure-shot case of being made to run around in circles. How does one determine which voters need to be polled, and how does this polling take place?)
• Problem 2: Proposal to be approved by local municipality, and the Ministry of Urban Development.
( Will there be transparent criteria? A time-limit for approvals?)
• Problem 3: The community has to deposit 10% of project cost as its contribution first, and then the government releases balance money to the implementor.
( This, to me, is the toughest. Which brave soul will undertake to run the collection drive, and be held accountable for it? I am not sure our neighbourhoods have strong, structured bodies which can wield the stick and do this)
A simplified, transparent implementation process needs to be detailed out. Without that, any well-intentioned community is likely to get frustrated quickly and give up. That would be a tragedy, because this scheme is brilliant in terms of what it sets out to do.
