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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Special Correspondent
The URIF, set up by the Central Government with a corpus of Rs. 500 crores, seeks to provide reform-linked assistance to the States which take up reforms in various aspects like Rent Control Act, repeal of Urban Land Ceiling Act, introduction of double accounting system in the municipalities and rationalisation of stamps, property tax collection and registration duties besides levy of user charges. Andhra Pradesh became the 11th State in the country to sign an MoU with the Centre on URIF. According to the MoU signed in the presence of the Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Bandaru Dattatreya, and State Municipal Administration Minister, B.V. Mohan Reddy, the State Government would receive an immediate assistance of Rs. 35.95 crores, 50 per cent of the State's eligibility amount, from the Centre for taking up various programmes to improve urban infrastructure. The balance amount would be released by the Centre from time to time based on the compliance of the State on the seven indicators including the repeal of Urban Land Ceiling Act. Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister said that based on the response from different states on complying with the indicators, the Centre would consider increasing the corpus by another Rs. 500 crores. Mr. Mohan Reddy, on his part, said that Andhra Pradesh already complied with the indicators like levying user charges and property tax collection while steps had been initiated to comply with the remaining indicators. Earlier, Mr. Mohan Reddy requested the Union Ministry to release Rs. 380 crores for taking up works pertaining to drinking water supply in Hindupur of Anantapur district (with an estimated Rs. 200 crores), Kakinada under ground drainage scheme (Rs. 150 crore) and Jangaon water supply scheme (Rs. 30 crores). He also urged the Centre to release Rs. 50 crores under Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojna, Rs. 50 crores under the National Slum Development Programme, Rs. 23.5 crores for Megacity project and Rs. 225 crores for the Krishna water diversion scheme which was under progress to mitigate drinking water problems in the twin cities. In addition, proposals were also put forth to the Union Ministry for release of Rs. 80 crores for taking up works under the Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns and an additional Rs. 70 crores for diverting the Godavari water to Visakhapatnam to serve the drinking water needs of people. This apart, the Centre was requested to give permission to the Visakhapatnam Municipal authorities to float tax free bonds through which the funds required for the city's development could be mobilised. Requesting the State Government to send detailed reports on the proposed projects like the Rs. 500-crore slum development project for the twin cities, Mr. Dattatreya promised that he would examine the proposals positively and contact the funding agencies for mobilising the required amount. Besides, the Union Ministry was also contemplating bringing about a National Slum Development Policy for which opinions were sought from different States. The policy would be before the Union Cabinet for its approval shortly.
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