The Union Urban Development Ministry will introduce an annual JNNURM ranking of the cities to measure the stated objectives and the actual outcomes achieved by projects covered under the urban infrastructure and governance component in the JNNURM.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) Scheme was initiated by the Ministry of Urban Development in 2006 with the objectives of reforms-driven and fast-track development of 65 cities across the country under its Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) component.
Annual awards
Mr Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Urban Development, in a letter to Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP and Convener ABIDe, said the idea of annual awards is to bring in transparency and accountability into projects initiated under the JNNURM.
Mr Chandrasekhar pointed out to the Minister about lack of clarity in the progress made by projects under JNNRUM and the increasing perception that the programme was becoming another tax payer programme with little or no focus on the outcomes or objectives.
Mr Kamal Nath accepted the suggestion by Mr Chandrasekhar to institute annual JNNURM ranking of the cities and instructed his Ministry to work out a mechanism to implement the annual ranking of cities.
Objectives
In his letter, Mr Chandrasekhar also pointed out that though the JNNURM was launched six years ago with laudable objectives of reforms driven and fast track development of cities across the country, there was no clarity if the objectives were successfully met. He urged Mr Nath to review of the projects under JNNURM so that there can be spotlight on the stated objectives and the real outcomes of the programme – an exercise that will help the Government to focus on coherent and integrated development of each of the 65 cities that JNNURM supports.