Lok Sabha Question No. 2487 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-03
Subject: Reforms of Urban Local Bodies
Ministry: HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS
Asked by: Rekha Arun Verma

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2487 TO BE ANSWERED ON AUGUST 03, 2023

## REFORMS OF URBAN LOCAL BODIES

## NO. 2487.  SHRIMATI REKHA VERMA:

Will  the  Minister  of  HOUSING  AND  URBAN  AFFAIRS  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) whether there is a need of reforms in the institutional and individual capacities of local urban bodies;
- (b) if  so,  the  initiative  proposed  to  be  taken  by  the  Government  in  this regard; and
- (c) the details of efforts made/being made by the Government to promote think tank and Centre of Excellence to provide input for urban policy development and analysis?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS (SHRI KAUSHAL KISHORE)

(a)  &  (b):  Yes,  Sir.  Under  Atal  Mission  for  Rejuvenation  and  Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0 reform agenda, the following mandatory and incentive-based reforms are to be achieved by the States and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs):-

| Reform Type       |   Reform Name | Reform Name                                                                             |
|-------------------|---------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Mandatory Reforms |             1 | Reform On Property Tax                                                                  |
|                   |             2 | Reform on User Charges                                                                  |
| Incentive-based   |             3 | Implementation of Urban Reforms                                                         |
| Reforms           |             4 | Online Grievance redressal and municipal service delivery                               |
|                   |             5 | Water body rejuvenation                                                                 |
|                   |             6 | GIS based mapping for Property Tax collection                                           |
|                   |             7 | Efficient Urban Planning through Local Area Plans (LAP) and Town Planning Schemes (TPS) |
|                   |             8 | Reduction in Non-Revenue Water (NRW) to below 20%                                       |
|                   |             9 | Recycle/ Reuse of treated used water                                                    |

The  Ministry  proactively  organizes  and  imparts  online/  physical  training sessions for capacity building of Urban Local Bodies on implementation of AMRUT  2.0  Reforms  and  skill  enhancement  to  efficiently  operate  online portals.  Till  now,  21  states  and  UTs  have  been  covered  under  these workshops.  The  Ministry  has  also  conducted  a  regional  workshop  on property tax reform to train officials of Urban Local Bodies for improving municipal finances.

Scheme for  Special  Assistance  to  States  for  Capital  Investment  2022-23 issued  by  Department  of  Expenditure,  Ministry  of  Finance,  earmarked  an amount  of  Rs.6,000  crore  for  improving  and  speeding  up  basic  urban planning  ecosystem  in  cities  -  in  which  MoHUA  had  recommended  the below reforms to be implemented by States:

|   S.No. | Reform Component                                                         |
|---------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       1 | Modernization of Building Bylaws                                         |
|       2 | Adoption of Transferrable Development Rights (TDR)                       |
|       3 | Implementation of Local Area Plans (LAP) and Town Planning Schemes (TPS) |
|       4 | Implementation of Transit-oriented Development (ToD)                     |
|       5 | Creation of Sponge Cities                                                |
|       6 | Removing Taxation for running the Buses for Public Transport             |

Based  on  the  recommendations  of  MoHUA,  Department  of  Expenditure (DoE),  Ministry  of  Finance  disbursed  an  amount  of  Rs.  4093.16  crore  to eligible States.

The Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment 202324 (Part III-Urban Planning Reforms) issued by Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, earmarks an amount of Rs.15,000 crore. The reforms this  year  have  been  widened  by  including  more  cities.    The  reform components include:

|   S.No. | Reform Component                                                                    |
|---------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       1 | Augmentation of Human Resources for Strengthening Capacities at State and ULB level |
|       2 | Implementation of Town Planning Schemes (TPS)/ Land Pooling Scheme                  |
|       3 | Modernization of Building Bylaws                                                    |
|       4 | Promoting Affordable Housing and In-situ Slum Rehabilitation                        |
|       5 | Transit-oriented Development for Ease of Mobility                                   |
|       6 | Transferrable Development Rights as a Planning Tool                                 |
|       7 | Strengthening Natural Ecosystems of Urban Areas through Urban Planning              |
|       8 | Integrating essential components in Master Plans                                    |

The Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment 202324  (Part  IV-Financing  Reforms  in  Urban  Local  Bodies  to  make  them creditworthy for Municipal Bonds and for Issue of Municipal Bonds) issued by Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, earmarks an amount of Rs.5,000 crore. The scheme provides financial assistance in the form of 50year  interest-free  loan  will  be  available  to  States  upon  achieving  the following milestones:

|   Milestone No. | Milestone Name                                                                                                      |
|-----------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|               1 | Preparation of roadmap for property tax governance reforms for all stages of property tax implementation            |
|               2 | Improvement in property tax rates and collections                                                                   |
|               3 | User charges reforms                                                                                                |
|               4 | Ring-fencing of property tax and user charges towards pooled municipal bond issuances for long tail of smaller ULBs |

(c):  Yes,  Sir.  In  Budget  2022-23,  Government  of  India  has  announced  the creation  of  5  Centres  of  Excellence  in  Urban  Planning  and  Design  in different regions of the country.  Guidelines in this regard were issued in September, 2022. 28 academic institutions have submitted their proposals to  MoHUA.  An  Expert  Committee  comprising  senior  officials  of  MoHUA, Deptt.  of  Higher  Education,  NITI  Aayog  and  domain  experts  has  been constituted. The systematic evaluation of the proposals as per guidelines is under process. Once selected, these centres will be provided an endowment fund of Rs 250 crore each.

Another key initiative towards providing input for urban policy development and analysis is creation of a Centre of Excellence for urban sanitation and waste management. MoHUA has established a dedicated CoE at IIM-Indore to scale up academic collaborations for high quality R&D, impact assessments and studies on emerging focus areas and themes of Swachh Bharat  Mission-Urban  (SBM-U)  2.0.  The  CoE  has  undertaken  training  of 1,200  officials  via  Offline  capacity  building  trainings;  1,200  officials  via blended learning modules; and 5,000 officials via e-learning modules since its establishment. It is producing research and knowledge products for the urban  sanitation and  waste  management  sector  in  India.  It  is also establishing  closer  linkages/  undertaking  collaborative  projects  with  the industry/ private sector and ULBs for leveraging best practices and success models.

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