Under Union Government’s scheme called Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission, the State Government was supposed to transfer 18 mandatory functions and functionaries of different departments to the Urban Local Bodies (Municipal Corporations, Councils and Committees). Failing to do so resulted in the Union Government withholding funds for the scheme. The State Cabinet gave nod to transfer of the functions and functionaries but on the ground nothing moved. No transfers have taken place obviously because there are vested interests and the beneficiaries would not want to part with their share of spoils. The situation is that a handful of functionaries at some level in the Government are motivated by self aggrandizement and are trying to block the transfer of 18 functions. More than seven months have passed when the Cabinet gave its nod and still not a blade of grass has moved. Who will answer the why of this delay?
It is a considered plan of the Union Government to give more functions to the Urban Local Bodies in the spirit of distribution of labour and power and devolution of authority. It is a step towards providing good governance. It is a concrete step towards decentralization. The people living within the jurisdiction of urban localities would immensely benefit from the project. We fail to understand how a handful of people somewhere in some corner of the Secretariat have the audacity of scuttling the Cabinet order and the much debated policy of the Union Government.
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