[Urbanstudy] New MPCs to screen urban planning in 4 cities - Gujarat

[Vinay Baindur]

New panel to screen urban planning in cities
27 Sep 2008, 0616 hrs IST,TNN

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ahmedabad/New_panel_to_screen_urban_planning_in_cities_/articleshow/3533117.cms


   Gandhinagar: Gujarat government has decided to place four metropolitan
areas of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot under new metropolitan
planning committees. The state assembly, in session in Gandhinagar, on
Friday passed a new law, Gujarat Metropolitan Committees Bill, 2008, in
order to "regularise " the development process in each of these cities by
placing planning and development in and around the metropolitan areas under
the new committees.

Well-informed sources in the state urban development department said, with
the passing of the Bill, all urban planning activities of Ahmedabad Urban
Development Authority (AUDA) and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)
will be "screened" by Ahmedabad's proposed metropolitan planning committee.
The same will happen with Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot. "AMC and AUDA will not
be able to directly send urban projects for approval to the Gujarat
government ," a senior official said.

The Bill complies with Article 243ZE of 74th amendment of the Constitution
of India, carried out in 1992. "After the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission (JNNURM) came into force, one of its mandatory provisions
was to come up with this reform, without which state governments would not
get full instalments of JNNURM funds," the official said. "Pending since
2005, the state government was forced to move the Bill in 2008 to get
funds," he added.

The Bill will come into force after the state government forms rules on how
to implement it. Passed unanimously, each committee will have a minister as
its chairman. Others in the committee are district panchayat president,
urban development authority chairman, municipal corporation payor, municipal
commissioner , district collector, district development authority, urban
development authority CEO, experts in urban development and members of
municipal corporations, municipalities and panchayats falling in the
metropolitan area.

MLAs and MPs of the region will be invitee members of the committee "The
purpose is to provide a coordinated effort to develop an urban area by
involving government officials and elected representatives together at
various levels," an official said.

State urban development minister Nitin Patel , who introduced the Bill in
the House, told TOI, "The committee has powers to recommend . It will
prepare urban development drafts to be submitted to the state government for
approval . The drafts can be prepared only for areas which are approved by
the state government . It will help planned development of metropolitan
areas of 10 lakh plus population."

Notably, as many as eight states - Karnataka , Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab,
Rajasthan , Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal - have already enacted
laws forming such committees.

ALL ABOUT THE COMMITTEES

Members

Each committee will have a minister as its chairman Other members are
district panchayat president, urban development authority chairman, mayor,
municipal commissioner, district collector, district development authority,
urban development authority CEO, experts in urban development MLAs and MPs
of the region are invitee members

Objective

To provide co-ordinated effort to develop an urban area by involving
government officials and elected representatives together at various levels

Function

It will prepare urban development drafts to be approved by state government
It will help planned development of metropolitan areas of 10 lakh plus
population
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080927/961dc144/attachment-0001.html