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Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (<keyword id="29369" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amrut">AMRUT</keyword>), the Indian government’s ambitious plan to push urban development, recently got more steam and an increased support. Under the transformation plan, the government plans for 500 cities for the next three months worth Rs 25,000 crore. 
 AMRUT was launched in June 2015, and focuses on revamping 500 cities where it targets on basic human needs like on water supply, sewerage network and community parks. Yearly, <keyword id="3743689" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="state-annual-action-plans">State Annual Action Plans</keyword> are sent to the apex committee which is headed by the secretary. The committee then clears the projects as states send them to be sanctioned. 
 The <keyword id="6696781" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Urban-development-ministry">Urban Development Ministry</keyword>, however, is looking forward to change the approach and sanction projects totally. According to the sources, this will be helping states in gauging the funds and move to area based approach rather than project based approach. The states have been advised to send their plans for the next three fiscals 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 within this month. The apex committee will then meet and consider plans that are wise and sanction them. "This way the states save time as they don't have to come for each project. Also they know the funds they would have for the next three fiscals and can plan area development and also how much they need to raise through public-private partnerships,” a ministry official told ET. 
(image: indiatimes)

Indian Govt’s ambitious urban development plan gets Rs 25,000 crore push

Do you know that if one lays down the cities of India in the descending order of their population, the 200th city has only 2,00,000 population. So changing the face of cities through the <keyword id="2738020" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Smart-Cities-Mission">Smart Cities mission</keyword> and <keyword id="29369" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amrut">AMRUT</keyword> essentially means changing the face of cities with a smaller population. Colonypara in the Sunderbans through sheer determination, hard work, and local leadership of women, spread across 15 villages, joined hands to build more than 10 kilometres of brick roads, connecting several previously inaccessible villages. This has changed their lives as these villages were subject to the fury of nature in the form floods and disastrous cyclones that are frequent in this vast tract of forest and saltwater swamp. In small cities of population ranging from 1,00,000 to 3,00,000, small infrastructure development can turn out to be a big game changer. 

	Providing basic services (water supply, sewerage, urban transport) to households and building amenities in cities to improve quality of life for all, especially the poor and disadvantaged, is a national priority. Earlier learnings have shown that infrastructure creation should have a direct impact on the real needs of people, such as providing taps and toilet connections to all households. This means the focus should be on infrastructure creation with a direct link to provision of better services to people.
 Therefore, the purpose of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and <keyword id="2130852" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Urban-transformation">Urban Transformation</keyword> (AMRUT) is to: 

	• Ensure every household has access to a tap with assured supply of water and a sewerage connection
 

	• Increase the amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well-maintained open spaces (e.g. parks)
 

	• Reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorised transport (e.g. walking and cycling). 
 All these outcomes are valued by citizens, particularly women, and indicators and standards have been prescribed by the <keyword id="162100" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ministry-of-Urban-Development">Ministry of Urban Development</keyword> (MoUD) in the form of service-level benchmarks (SLBs). AMRUT has the potential to improve quality of life across segments; thus, it can play a significant role in changing a city’s image. 

	Implementation of this Mission will be linked to promotion of urban reforms, such as e-governance, constitution of professional municipal cadre, devolving funds and functions to urban local bodies, review of building bylaws, improvement in assessment and collection of municipal taxes, credit rating of urban local bodies, energy and water audit, and citizen-centric urban planning. All this would improve quality of urban governance, leading to better citizen satisfaction.
 

	This Mission will be implemented in 500 cities and towns, each with a population of 1 lakh and above; some cities situated on stems of main rivers, a few capital cities and important cities located in hilly areas, islands and tourist areas. Under this mission, 10 per cent of the budget allocation will be given to states and union territories as incentive based on the achievement of reforms during the previous year. Indeed, AMRUT has the potential to revive cities languishing for lack of basic infrastructure. 
	 (The article is authored by Pratap Padode, Founder and Director of <keyword id="3070683" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Smart-City-Council-of-India">Smart City Council of India</keyword>.) 
	 
	(Image credits: Indiatimes)

Why AMRUT can be a bigger game changer

Upholding the Central Information Commission’s (<keyword id="6378909" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="CIC">CIC</keyword>) order, the <keyword id="6355014" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Delhi-High-Court">Delhi High Court</keyword> has dismissed a writ petition by <keyword id="6362997" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="DLF">DLF</keyword>’s subsidiary Edward Keventors Successors. The company had challenged CIC in which the commission had directed the company to disclose the details of a land in South block in Delhi that allegedly raises security threats to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. 
	 
	“In view of the aforesaid, the contention that the petitioner had not been granted an opportunity of hearing cannot be sustained. An opportunity of making oral submissions was granted to the petitioner in view of the unequivocal language of the notice issued on February 28, 2013, however the petitioner rested content by sending a response dated March 10, 2013. Thus, the provision of Section 19(4) of the RTI Act was duly complied with,” the court said in its order. 
	 
	The court further added, “I am also unable to accept the contention that the petitioner was prejudiced in any manner on account of non disclosure of the application preferred by respondent no.3. The petitioner was informed of that respondent number three had sought information relating to the property ‐Block‐ 48, Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi...Thus, the petitioner was aware of the information that was sought. It is clarified that no information relating to the petitioner other than that relating to the property in question is to be disclosed.” 
	 
	The court observed that since the commission had followed the law, hence, it was not necessary to review the ‘merits of the decision’ taken by CIC. The commission had given its final order on December 3, 2013 following a RTI application filed by activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal which had sought information on the said land. 
	 
	It should be noted that objections were raised against DLF’s subsidiary’s plans of constructing high-rise luxury apartments on that land as any private building close to the President’s house posed serious threats to the country’s sovereignty. 
	 
	“It is noteworthy that Subramanian Swamy in his letters addressed to President of India alleged involvement of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra in the dubious land-deal highlighted in the RTI queries, said to have been the biggest ever land-scam in the country,” said Agarwal. 
	 
	“With petition of DLF subsidiary (Edward Keventors Successors) now dismissed, Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and any other concerned government-agency should review decision of allowing land-use change in earlier UPA-regime in the controversial matter where even intelligence-authorities and President Secretariat are learnt to have raised objections from security-aspect with land-project being in close vicinity of Rashtrapati Bhawan,” he added. 
	 
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Delhi High Court Upholds CIC’s Order, Rejects
Petition Filed by DLF’s Subsidiary

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Indian Govt’s ambitious urban development plan gets Rs 25,000 crore push

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Why AMRUT can be a bigger game changer

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Delhi High Court Upholds CIC’s Order, Rejects Petition Filed by DLF’s Subsidiary

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