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If
villages are the soul of a country, cities are its face.
In a meaningful thought, the present Madhya Pradesh
Government paid adequate attention to urban development
despite giving priority to rural development. Pressure of
population has also increased on the cities with rise in
facilities of industry, higher education and employment.
Efforts to provide adequate housing, drinking water and
other facilities to the growing urban population have
gained momentum in recent years. For urban development in
the state many ambitious projects have been launched
including Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana, Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), National
Urban Information System schemes, Unified Housing and Slum
Development Programme and Slum Development Programme. Many
state-sponsored schemes are also operative including
schemes for improvement of environment, water supply,
Ayodhya Basti Yojana and projects to augments underground
water resource. The state is also getting the benefits of
Asian Development Bank-aided schemes and urban service
programme of DFID (Britain). During the last two years
many ambitious projects for urban development have been
launched. Implementation on this projects would enhance
the image of Madhya Pradesh in India and abroad.
Madhya
Pradesh is one of the three states which have taken the
lead in presenting for approval the City Development Plan
under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Ujjain are at present getting
benefits of this scheme, which has been implemented, in
big cities of the country since December 2005. Madhya
Pradesh is also second in B Grade cities'
infrastructure-related schemes. Under JNNURM 32 schemes to
the tune of Rs 1509.60 have been passed water supply
projects, sewerage system, urban traffic management and
providing houses and basic amenities to urban poor people
in Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur. Under the mission, the
Union government has passed Rs 2745.75 crore plan for
Indore, Rs 2153 crore for Bhopal, Rs 1929 crore for
Jabalpur and Rs 1237.73 for Ujjain.
On
the initiative of Madhya Pradesh Urban Administration and
Development Department and with the cooperation of
Britain's International Development Department (DFID), a
programme named as Madhya Pradesh Urban Services for the
Poor (MPUSP) is being implemented in four big cities of
the state including Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior
for urban administration and improvement, people-oriented
administration and providing basic amenities to poor
people. This is a five-year plan with an estimated cost of
Rs 350 crore ( 41 million pounds) for the period
2006-2011. Implementation on Unified Housing and Slum
Development Programme and Basic Services for the Poor has
been started in Madhya Pradesh since the year 2005. The
purpose of these Centre-sponsored programmes is to develop
infrastructure for providing all round housing and basic
amenities to the residents of slums in the urban areas.
This scheme is under implementation in all the cities of
Madhya Pradesh where Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission is not operative. The government of India
has given approval to the scheme of constructing 32,345
houses with an estimated cost of Rs 521.61 under Basic
Services for the Urban Poor project and another scheme of
constructing 15,795 houses with a cost of Rs 225.74 crore
under Unified Housing and Slum Development Programme. The
minimum constructed area of each unit would be 250 feet
with two rooms, kitchen and latrine. These houses would be
constructed in medium and small cities as per requirement
on the patterns of G\G-1 or G-2\G-3.
For
providing economic assistance for self-employment of
people living below poverty line Swarna Jayanti Shahri
Rozgar Yojana has been implemented. Under this scheme Rs
875.43 lakh in 2003-04, Rs 1151.28 in 2004-05, Rs 1817.65
lakh in 2005-06, Rs 2446.21 lakh in 2006-2007 has been
spent. For the year Central share to the tune of Rs 1560
lakh and state's share amounting to Rs 520 lakh has been
received for the scheme for the year 2007-08. The number
of urban poor people in the state is 1307504.
The
state government is also sensitive towards the problems of
hawkers who sell commodities by visiting from house to
house. Under Urban Hawkers Welfare Programme, identity
cards have been provided to 90,000 surveyed hawkers and
1049 hawkers' zones have been identified. Ayodhya Basti
Yojana was implemented by the state government from
October 2004 for concerted development of urban slum
areas. Under this scheme five each slum areas of Indore,
Bhopal, Jabalpur, Gwalior and Ujjain were selected to be
developed as Ayodhya Bastis while in rest of the cities
one each slum was selected for this purpose.
Asian
Development Bank's scheme for meeting the growing
requirement of drinking water and improving environment is
being implemented in Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Ujjain and
Jabalpur. Under this scheme works related to water supply,
effluents disposal system, water treatment plants, solid
waste management etc are being undertaken with a cost of
Rs 1366 crore while community development works are being
implemented with people's participation.
With
the help of these ambitious and big schemes launched and
to be launched by the state government with the help of
Union government and external agencies, the economically
weaker people in the state would get the facilities to
lead a good life. Not only this but the cities of Madhya
Pradesh would be counted among good cities of the country.
Since....
'God
made the country but man made the town'
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