States and union territories failed to make use of committed central assistance of Rs.12,397 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Poverty Alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu has said.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha MPs Rattan Lal Kataria, K C Venugopal and P Srinivasa Reddy, Naidu furnished details of central assistance under the JnNURM, which was launched in December 2005 and closed by the previous government on March 31, 2014.
Under the JnNURM, the central government committed itself to provide a total assistance of Rs.46,787 cr to states/UTs for taking up urban infrastructure/development projects. Release of central assistance was linked to implementation of reforms. But the states/UTs could avail only 73.50 percent of the central assistance, thus forfeiting Rs.12,397 cr.
Delhi topped the list of under users having failed to avail central assistance of Rs.1,130 crore as against the committed assistance of Rs.2,327 crore under the component for improvement of infrastructure and other projects in 65 identified big cities. This amounted to only 49 per cent utilization of the committed central assistance.
Other under performers included – Goa with only 25 percent utilization of central assistance, Bihar (39 percent), Kerala (39 percent), Mizoram (44 percent), Punjab (45 percent), Jharkhand (48 percent) and Meghalaya (50 percent).
668 small and medium towns reported better utilization of JnNURM funds with an overall utilization of 76 percent of central assistance.
