With increased industrialization, more and more Indians find themselves living in cities; 340 million lived in cities in India in 2008, with the number expected to rise to 590 million by 2030. India has three of the fifteen largest metropolitan areas in the world, with Delhi and Mumbai already having populations larger than New York’s.
This growth in urban living in India poses distinct challenges to a country that remains largely rural. Slums and Indian megacities are synonymous in the popular imagination, and the policymaking issues only begin there. Transportation, sewage, land use, water supply, housing, pollution, governance, and a host of other issues pose challenges for cities large and small in a country that is still economically poor. Further, urban policymaking is considered a state subject according to India’s constitution, making national policymaking even more difficult.
To deal with these challenges and others, India’s national government’s policymaking on cities is currently divided into two separate ministries – the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. The two ministries share ownership over the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), a massive multi-year government investment in urban infrastructure and urban governance reform. The JNNURM has given the Ministry of Urban Development an elevated profile in recent years.
Beyond its role in addressing urban infrastructure, the Ministry of Urban Development continues to house a number of attached and subordinate bodies such as the Central Public Works Department and the Department of Publications.
The subject of the ministry’s work, urbanization, has been described as “unplanned and uncontrolled growth” of large cities. In 1901, India’s urban population made up only about 11% of the population, with about 26 million people living in cities. Today, both Delhi and Bombay have populations at or above 23 million people.
The Constitution of India initially left urban planning to the states, rather than the national government, and city governments were completely subordinated to state governments. The Ministry of Urban Development’s lineage can be traced back to this era, to 1952, when its ancestor, the Ministry of Works, Housing and Supply (WHS) was created. Over time, the ministry of WHS evolved, and in 1985 was renamed the Ministry of Urban Development. The Ministry of Urban Development has, on and off, been merged with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA), of which it is currently independent.
In 1992, the 74th Amendment to the Indian Constitution recognized city governments as a separate level below state and the national government, and, in theory, accorded greater importance and more autonomy to them. However, most of the key decisions affecting cities are still made at a state level.
In 2005, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission was inaugurated (JNNURM), which increases the federal government’s influence over urban planning and governance. The JNNURM initially made Rs 50,000 crore ($10.1 billion USD) available to cities for infrastructure projects and urban governance reforms with the remainder of funding for the projects to come from states or city governments and through public-private partnerships. The project has been a boon for the power of the Ministry of Urban Development, which approves or denies projects related to urban infrastructure and governance. The project, whose funding has already been increased, is expected to be extended past 2012, its initially scheduled end date.
The Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) sub-mission of the JNNURM is the ministry’s “flagship” program. The ministry approved 533 projects for funding through 2011.
In addition to its work on the JNNURM, the ministry has plowed nearly $1 billion USD in 2011-12 into metropolitan rail projects in four of India’s biggest cities. The Ministry of Urban Development also constructs and maintains most of the government of India’s offices and residences. Among its major responsibilities, the ministry maintains public works through the Central Public Works Department.
Finally, the Ministry of Urban Development has a large number of attached, autonomous, or subordinate bodies. Some are relevant to its nominal mission—for example, it is primarily responsible for overseeing urban planning of the capital area through bodies such as the Delhi Development Authority and the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB). However, not all of its subordinate bodies are connected to urban planning; for example, the government’s Department of Publication, its Stationery Office, and its Directorate of Printing are all, curiously, housed in the Ministry of Urban Development.
Attached Bodies or Autonomous Bodies
Central Public Works Department (CPWD)
The Central Public Works Department is the civil engineering arm of the government of India. It builds and maintains almost all of the government of India’s buildings and structures with the exception of those carried out by certain other government bodies (e.g. buildings under the auspices of the Railway Ministry). This gives it a wide range of activities. For example, it states that it deals with “housing and office space and complexes, hospitals, workshops and factories, hostels and hotels, food grain storage structures, roads, national highways, bridges and flyovers, airports, computer centers, environmental and other utility services.” The CPWD is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development.
The Directorate of Estates is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It administers and manages government offices and residences in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Shimla, Chandigarh, Ghaziabad, Faridpur, and Nagpur.
The Directorate of Printing is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It is the government’s printing press and publishes such documents as the budget, annual reports of various ministries and departments, and parliamentary papers.
The L&DO administers government-owned land in Delhi. According to the L&DO, there are about 50,500 leases of government land in Delhi. In addition to handling sales, leases, mortgages, etc., the L&DO reports that it maintains lease records, allots land to various government bodies as directed by the ministry, auctions land and property as directed by the ministry, and addresses squatting on government land. Some critics, however, have questioned whether the L&DO is doing its job properly or fairly. The L&DO is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development.
Town and Country Planning Organization
The TCPO is a subordinate office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It is a consulting organization to the government of India and other bodies on technical aspects of urban and regional planning. It reports involvement in several government programs, including the development of small and medium size towns, the mapping of urban spaces including demographic information, assisting in planning the rebuilding of some tsunami-affected areas in India, developing model bye-laws for cities, the JNNURM, and others.
Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization
An attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development, the CPHEEO provides technical support to state and municipal governments and other government bodies on issues related to urban water supply and sanitation. It also reports it is engaged in a number of other activities related to public health and environmental engineering, including training and education. It was created in 1953 and affiliated to the antecedent ministry to the Ministry of Urban Development in the early 1970s.
The CCA is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It is in charge of budget, pay, and accounting for both the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
The government’s Stationery Office is a subordinate office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It is responsible for procuring and supplying paper for ministries and departments.
The Department of Publication is a subordinate office of the Ministry of Urban Development. Like the Stationery Office and the Directorate of Printing, it has little to do with the core mission of the Ministry of Urban Development. Instead, it is responsible for the sale and distribution of government publications, including 29 periodicals ranging from the Indian Trade Journal to Indian Minerals.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was created in 1957 and is an autonomous body supported by the Ministry of Urban Development. The DDA reports its mission as: to formulate a master plan for Delhi; to buy, hold, and sell land; and to engage in building, mining, engineering, and other activities. As such, its activities deal with everything from building and selling residential properties to creating biodiversity parks. Commentators have noted the high levels of corruption and graft in the DDA.
The DUAC is an autonomous body supported by the Ministry of Urban Development. It was created in 1973 in order to protect Delhi’s aesthetics in the course of development, including the skyline.
National Capital Region Planning Board:
The National Capital Regional Planning Board came into being in 1985 after several decades of increased focus on planning Delhi in regional context. The National Capital Region comprises Delhi and its surrounding districts in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. According to the legislation that created it, the functions of the NCRPB are to plan the region’s development, including assisting with the planning of the districts that make it up. The NCRPB is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Urban Development and the Union Minister is its chairman.
National Institute of Urban Affairs:
The NIUA is an autonomous research institute supported by the Ministry of Urban Development. It studies urbanization and provides trainings with the aim of providing input to policymakers in charge of urban affairs. It was set up in 1976.
An autonomous body supported by the Ministry for Urban Development, the Rajghat Samadhi Committee has existed since 1951 to oversee the affairs of the memorial to Mohandas Gandhi in Delhi known as the Rajghat Samadhi. It also organizes events at the Samadhi.
National Building Construction Corporation Limited:
The NBCC is a company set up in 1960 wholly owned by the government of India through the Ministry of Urban Development. It reports that it engages in project management consulting, real estate development, and building civil infrastructure for energy projects. The NBCC reported its 2010-11 revenue as Rs. 3231.45 crore ($653.87 million USD).
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited:
The Delhi Metro is a 50/50 joint venture between the government of India and the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. It describes its aim as building a financially independent metropolitan rail system covering all of Delhi by the year 2021. In recent years, it completed the first 65 kilometers of the project at a self-reported cost of Rs. 10571 crore ($2.14 billion USD). It is currently at work on an extension of the project that would add about 125 kilometers and 83 additional stations. The Delhi Metro has been reported to be a relatively well-run organization.
The Chennai Metro is a 50/50 joint venture between the government of India and the government of the state of Tamil Nadu to build a metropolitan rail system in Chennai. The project is expected to cost Rs. 14,600 crore ($2.95 billion USD) with 41% of the cost born by the government of India and the Tamil Nadu government and the remainder coming in the form of a 30-year loan by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2014-15.
Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited:
The Kolkata Metro is a 50/50 joint venture between the government of India and the government of the state of West Bengal to add an east-west line to the existing Kolkata metropolitan rail system. The total cost of the project according to Kolkata Metro is expected to be Rs. 4874.58 crore ($986.36 million USD), with the governments of India and West Bengal paying 53.78% in debt and equity and the remainder of the funding to come from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency.
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited:
The Bangalore Metro is a 50/50 joint venture between the government of India and the government of the state of Karnataka. The project aims to build two metropolitan rail lines in Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, extending 42.3 kilometers in total. Bangalore Metro reports that the project will cost Rs. 11609 crore ($2.35 billion). The majority of the money will come from the government of India and the government of Karnataka, and the remainder as loans from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and other financial institutions.
The government spent nearly Rs. 5122.35 crore ($995.98 million USD) on metropolitan rail projects in Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Chennai. These expenditures made up about 60% of the Ministry of Urban Development’s budget for 2011-12. Secondly, the Ministry of Urban Development spent Rs. 1510.44 crore ($293.69 Million USD) on construction or maintenance of residential, office, and other government buildings. This made up an additional 17.7% of the ministry’s budget. Thirdly, the Ministry of Urban Development spent Rs. 1026.44 crore ($199.58 Million USD) on the Central Public Works Department and “Maintenance and Repairs including minor works.” This made up an additional 12% of the Ministry of Urban Development’s budget in 2011-12.
In addition to programs on the Ministry of Urban Development’s budget, the ministry is also the administering agency for several components of its “flagship” program, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). This year (2011-12) will mark the seventh year of the JNNURM, an enormous investment by the national government to improve India’s urban infrastructure and simultaneously to secure governance reforms at the city-level. Administration of the JNNURM is split between the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation while its budget comes from the national government in the form of Additional Central Assistance (ACA) and from state and local sources.
Corruption in Delhi
The land trade in Delhi is notoriously corrupt, and that includes arms of the Ministry of Urban Development such as the Land and Development Office and the Delhi Development Authority. Among allegations against officials in these bodies are graft, demanding bribes, rigging purchase prices for land, and failing to collect hundreds of crores in rent on government land. The DDA in particular has been noted as one of the most corrupt organizations in India.
Over 300 DDA Employees Face Corruption Charges (Indian Express)
A Costly Fiddle (by Raman Kirpal, Tehelka)
DDA Asst Director and 2 Others Sent to Jail in Corruption Case (ZeeNews)
Delhi’s Posh Hotels are Five-star Defaulters (by G Vishnu, Tehelka)
Railways Most Corrupt Government Organization, Says CVC Report (by Aman Sharma, India Today)
CAG to Look into DDA’s Role in CWG Corruption (by Devesh Kumar, Economic Times)
Encourage Inclusive Urban Development
In India’s cities the contrast between wealth and poverty is most glaring. The question of whom India’s cities are for rages across a variety of issues, large and small. From the redevelopment of Asia’s largest slum to the government’s policies before the Commonwealth Games to informal practices like corruption, critics argue that too often the well to do and big business interests are protected by the government to the detriment of the interests of the poor. The Singh government, on the other hand, says that it has made inclusive growth a priority but some analysts say that this is not enough.
The suggested reforms for ensuring that the poor are taken into account in urban development planning and practice are varied and numerous. A major suggested reform on urban development is enforcing equal treatment under the law for the rich and poor with a halt to redevelopment or demolitions of housing and other facilities for the poor.
In Famous Mumbai Slum, Redevelopment Plans Stir Controversy (PBS Newshour)
India's Slum-Dwellers Fear Eye in the Sky Heralds Demolition of Their Homes (by Jason Burke, The Guardian)
The Shift to City-Centric Growth Strategies: Perspective from Hyderabad and Mumbai (by Lorraine Kennedy and Marie-Hélène Zérah, Economic and Political Weekly)
If This Goes on Uninterrupted the Evicted Will All Become Maoists (by Mihir Srivastava, Tehelka)
Remove the Poor (by Avalok Langer, Tehelka)
Jaipal Sudini Reddy
Jaipal Sudini Reddy was the cabinet minister for urban development from 2005-2011. Reddy is now Petroleum and Natural Gas minister. He is a member of the Congress Party and serves in the Lok Sabha from Chelvella, Andhra Pradesh. He was first elected in 1984 and is now in his fifth term. Reddy also served in the Rajya Sabha from 1990 to 1996 and again from 1997 to 1998. From 2004 to 2006 Reddy held the portfolio for culture, and from 2004 to 2005 served as union cabinet minister for information and broadcasting. Reddy had previously served as cabinet minister for information and broadcasting from 1997 to 1998. As minister for urban development, Reddy was the lead in overseeing the government’s preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, which many saw as botched.
- Table of Contents
- Overview
- History
- What it Does
- Where Does the Money Go
- Controversies
- Debate
- Suggested Reforms
- Former Directors
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Ministry of Urban Development
With increased industrialization, more and more Indians find themselves living in cities; 340 million lived in cities in India in 2008, with the number expected to rise to 590 million by 2030. India has three of the fifteen largest metropolitan areas in the world, with Delhi and Mumbai already having populations larger than New York’s.
This growth in urban living in India poses distinct challenges to a country that remains largely rural. Slums and Indian megacities are synonymous in the popular imagination, and the policymaking issues only begin there. Transportation, sewage, land use, water supply, housing, pollution, governance, and a host of other issues pose challenges for cities large and small in a country that is still economically poor. Further, urban policymaking is considered a state subject according to India’s constitution, making national policymaking even more difficult.
To deal with these challenges and others, India’s national government’s policymaking on cities is currently divided into two separate ministries – the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. The two ministries share ownership over the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), a massive multi-year government investment in urban infrastructure and urban governance reform. The JNNURM has given the Ministry of Urban Development an elevated profile in recent years.
Beyond its role in addressing urban infrastructure, the Ministry of Urban Development continues to house a number of attached and subordinate bodies such as the Central Public Works Department and the Department of Publications.
The subject of the ministry’s work, urbanization, has been described as “unplanned and uncontrolled growth” of large cities. In 1901, India’s urban population made up only about 11% of the population, with about 26 million people living in cities. Today, both Delhi and Bombay have populations at or above 23 million people.
The Constitution of India initially left urban planning to the states, rather than the national government, and city governments were completely subordinated to state governments. The Ministry of Urban Development’s lineage can be traced back to this era, to 1952, when its ancestor, the Ministry of Works, Housing and Supply (WHS) was created. Over time, the ministry of WHS evolved, and in 1985 was renamed the Ministry of Urban Development. The Ministry of Urban Development has, on and off, been merged with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA), of which it is currently independent.
In 1992, the 74th Amendment to the Indian Constitution recognized city governments as a separate level below state and the national government, and, in theory, accorded greater importance and more autonomy to them. However, most of the key decisions affecting cities are still made at a state level.
In 2005, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission was inaugurated (JNNURM), which increases the federal government’s influence over urban planning and governance. The JNNURM initially made Rs 50,000 crore ($10.1 billion USD) available to cities for infrastructure projects and urban governance reforms with the remainder of funding for the projects to come from states or city governments and through public-private partnerships. The project has been a boon for the power of the Ministry of Urban Development, which approves or denies projects related to urban infrastructure and governance. The project, whose funding has already been increased, is expected to be extended past 2012, its initially scheduled end date.
The Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) sub-mission of the JNNURM is the ministry’s “flagship” program. The ministry approved 533 projects for funding through 2011.
In addition to its work on the JNNURM, the ministry has plowed nearly $1 billion USD in 2011-12 into metropolitan rail projects in four of India’s biggest cities. The Ministry of Urban Development also constructs and maintains most of the government of India’s offices and residences. Among its major responsibilities, the ministry maintains public works through the Central Public Works Department.
Finally, the Ministry of Urban Development has a large number of attached, autonomous, or subordinate bodies. Some are relevant to its nominal mission—for example, it is primarily responsible for overseeing urban planning of the capital area through bodies such as the Delhi Development Authority and the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB). However, not all of its subordinate bodies are connected to urban planning; for example, the government’s Department of Publication, its Stationery Office, and its Directorate of Printing are all, curiously, housed in the Ministry of Urban Development.
Attached Bodies or Autonomous Bodies
Central Public Works Department (CPWD)
The Central Public Works Department is the civil engineering arm of the government of India. It builds and maintains almost all of the government of India’s buildings and structures with the exception of those carried out by certain other government bodies (e.g. buildings under the auspices of the Railway Ministry). This gives it a wide range of activities. For example, it states that it deals with “housing and office space and complexes, hospitals, workshops and factories, hostels and hotels, food grain storage structures, roads, national highways, bridges and flyovers, airports, computer centers, environmental and other utility services.” The CPWD is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development.
The Directorate of Estates is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It administers and manages government offices and residences in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Shimla, Chandigarh, Ghaziabad, Faridpur, and Nagpur.
The Directorate of Printing is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It is the government’s printing press and publishes such documents as the budget, annual reports of various ministries and departments, and parliamentary papers.
The L&DO administers government-owned land in Delhi. According to the L&DO, there are about 50,500 leases of government land in Delhi. In addition to handling sales, leases, mortgages, etc., the L&DO reports that it maintains lease records, allots land to various government bodies as directed by the ministry, auctions land and property as directed by the ministry, and addresses squatting on government land. Some critics, however, have questioned whether the L&DO is doing its job properly or fairly. The L&DO is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development.
Town and Country Planning Organization
The TCPO is a subordinate office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It is a consulting organization to the government of India and other bodies on technical aspects of urban and regional planning. It reports involvement in several government programs, including the development of small and medium size towns, the mapping of urban spaces including demographic information, assisting in planning the rebuilding of some tsunami-affected areas in India, developing model bye-laws for cities, the JNNURM, and others.
Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization
An attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development, the CPHEEO provides technical support to state and municipal governments and other government bodies on issues related to urban water supply and sanitation. It also reports it is engaged in a number of other activities related to public health and environmental engineering, including training and education. It was created in 1953 and affiliated to the antecedent ministry to the Ministry of Urban Development in the early 1970s.
The CCA is an attached office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It is in charge of budget, pay, and accounting for both the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
The government’s Stationery Office is a subordinate office of the Ministry of Urban Development. It is responsible for procuring and supplying paper for ministries and departments.
The Department of Publication is a subordinate office of the Ministry of Urban Development. Like the Stationery Office and the Directorate of Printing, it has little to do with the core mission of the Ministry of Urban Development. Instead, it is responsible for the sale and distribution of government publications, including 29 periodicals ranging from the Indian Trade Journal to Indian Minerals.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was created in 1957 and is an autonomous body supported by the Ministry of Urban Development. The DDA reports its mission as: to formulate a master plan for Delhi; to buy, hold, and sell land; and to engage in building, mining, engineering, and other activities. As such, its activities deal with everything from building and selling residential properties to creating biodiversity parks. Commentators have noted the high levels of corruption and graft in the DDA.
The DUAC is an autonomous body supported by the Ministry of Urban Development. It was created in 1973 in order to protect Delhi’s aesthetics in the course of development, including the skyline.
National Capital Region Planning Board:
The National Capital Regional Planning Board came into being in 1985 after several decades of increased focus on planning Delhi in regional context. The National Capital Region comprises Delhi and its surrounding districts in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. According to the legislation that created it, the functions of the NCRPB are to plan the region’s development, including assisting with the planning of the districts that make it up. The NCRPB is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Urban Development and the Union Minister is its chairman.
National Institute of Urban Affairs:
The NIUA is an autonomous research institute supported by the Ministry of Urban Development. It studies urbanization and provides trainings with the aim of providing input to policymakers in charge of urban affairs. It was set up in 1976.
An autonomous body supported by the Ministry for Urban Development, the Rajghat Samadhi Committee has existed since 1951 to oversee the affairs of the memorial to Mohandas Gandhi in Delhi known as the Rajghat Samadhi. It also organizes events at the Samadhi.
National Building Construction Corporation Limited:
The NBCC is a company set up in 1960 wholly owned by the government of India through the Ministry of Urban Development. It reports that it engages in project management consulting, real estate development, and building civil infrastructure for energy projects. The NBCC reported its 2010-11 revenue as Rs. 3231.45 crore ($653.87 million USD).
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited:
The Delhi Metro is a 50/50 joint venture between the government of India and the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. It describes its aim as building a financially independent metropolitan rail system covering all of Delhi by the year 2021. In recent years, it completed the first 65 kilometers of the project at a self-reported cost of Rs. 10571 crore ($2.14 billion USD). It is currently at work on an extension of the project that would add about 125 kilometers and 83 additional stations. The Delhi Metro has been reported to be a relatively well-run organization.
The Chennai Metro is a 50/50 joint venture between the government of India and the government of the state of Tamil Nadu to build a metropolitan rail system in Chennai. The project is expected to cost Rs. 14,600 crore ($2.95 billion USD) with 41% of the cost born by the government of India and the Tamil Nadu government and the remainder coming in the form of a 30-year loan by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2014-15.
Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited:
The Kolkata Metro is a 50/50 joint venture between the government of India and the government of the state of West Bengal to add an east-west line to the existing Kolkata metropolitan rail system. The total cost of the project according to Kolkata Metro is expected to be Rs. 4874.58 crore ($986.36 million USD), with the governments of India and West Bengal paying 53.78% in debt and equity and the remainder of the funding to come from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency.
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited:
The Bangalore Metro is a 50/50 joint venture between the government of India and the government of the state of Karnataka. The project aims to build two metropolitan rail lines in Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, extending 42.3 kilometers in total. Bangalore Metro reports that the project will cost Rs. 11609 crore ($2.35 billion). The majority of the money will come from the government of India and the government of Karnataka, and the remainder as loans from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and other financial institutions.
The government spent nearly Rs. 5122.35 crore ($995.98 million USD) on metropolitan rail projects in Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Chennai. These expenditures made up about 60% of the Ministry of Urban Development’s budget for 2011-12. Secondly, the Ministry of Urban Development spent Rs. 1510.44 crore ($293.69 Million USD) on construction or maintenance of residential, office, and other government buildings. This made up an additional 17.7% of the ministry’s budget. Thirdly, the Ministry of Urban Development spent Rs. 1026.44 crore ($199.58 Million USD) on the Central Public Works Department and “Maintenance and Repairs including minor works.” This made up an additional 12% of the Ministry of Urban Development’s budget in 2011-12.
In addition to programs on the Ministry of Urban Development’s budget, the ministry is also the administering agency for several components of its “flagship” program, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). This year (2011-12) will mark the seventh year of the JNNURM, an enormous investment by the national government to improve India’s urban infrastructure and simultaneously to secure governance reforms at the city-level. Administration of the JNNURM is split between the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation while its budget comes from the national government in the form of Additional Central Assistance (ACA) and from state and local sources.
Corruption in Delhi
The land trade in Delhi is notoriously corrupt, and that includes arms of the Ministry of Urban Development such as the Land and Development Office and the Delhi Development Authority. Among allegations against officials in these bodies are graft, demanding bribes, rigging purchase prices for land, and failing to collect hundreds of crores in rent on government land. The DDA in particular has been noted as one of the most corrupt organizations in India.
Over 300 DDA Employees Face Corruption Charges (Indian Express)
A Costly Fiddle (by Raman Kirpal, Tehelka)
DDA Asst Director and 2 Others Sent to Jail in Corruption Case (ZeeNews)
Delhi’s Posh Hotels are Five-star Defaulters (by G Vishnu, Tehelka)
Railways Most Corrupt Government Organization, Says CVC Report (by Aman Sharma, India Today)
CAG to Look into DDA’s Role in CWG Corruption (by Devesh Kumar, Economic Times)
Encourage Inclusive Urban Development
In India’s cities the contrast between wealth and poverty is most glaring. The question of whom India’s cities are for rages across a variety of issues, large and small. From the redevelopment of Asia’s largest slum to the government’s policies before the Commonwealth Games to informal practices like corruption, critics argue that too often the well to do and big business interests are protected by the government to the detriment of the interests of the poor. The Singh government, on the other hand, says that it has made inclusive growth a priority but some analysts say that this is not enough.
The suggested reforms for ensuring that the poor are taken into account in urban development planning and practice are varied and numerous. A major suggested reform on urban development is enforcing equal treatment under the law for the rich and poor with a halt to redevelopment or demolitions of housing and other facilities for the poor.
In Famous Mumbai Slum, Redevelopment Plans Stir Controversy (PBS Newshour)
India's Slum-Dwellers Fear Eye in the Sky Heralds Demolition of Their Homes (by Jason Burke, The Guardian)
The Shift to City-Centric Growth Strategies: Perspective from Hyderabad and Mumbai (by Lorraine Kennedy and Marie-Hélène Zérah, Economic and Political Weekly)
If This Goes on Uninterrupted the Evicted Will All Become Maoists (by Mihir Srivastava, Tehelka)
Remove the Poor (by Avalok Langer, Tehelka)
Jaipal Sudini Reddy
Jaipal Sudini Reddy was the cabinet minister for urban development from 2005-2011. Reddy is now Petroleum and Natural Gas minister. He is a member of the Congress Party and serves in the Lok Sabha from Chelvella, Andhra Pradesh. He was first elected in 1984 and is now in his fifth term. Reddy also served in the Rajya Sabha from 1990 to 1996 and again from 1997 to 1998. From 2004 to 2006 Reddy held the portfolio for culture, and from 2004 to 2005 served as union cabinet minister for information and broadcasting. Reddy had previously served as cabinet minister for information and broadcasting from 1997 to 1998. As minister for urban development, Reddy was the lead in overseeing the government’s preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, which many saw as botched.
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