Greetings to all,
Hon’ble Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India, Shri Venkaiah Naidu Ji, Secretary-Housing & Poverty Alleviation and Urban Development, Ministers from different States and friends.
I would like to thank, the Urban Development
Ministry and Government of India for all the support and assistance extended
towards Karnataka State;
I take this opportunity to
reaffirm the commitment of Karnataka State Government in its efforts in giving
the Nation some of the best Urban Spaces for its citizens;
Karnataka is one of the
major urbanized States in the country, with 2.36 crore urban residents spread
across 213 urban local bodies. After the 2011 census, an additional 119 Rural
Gram Panchayaths have been recommended to be upgraded to urban local bodies.
Urbanization in Karnataka is expected
to increase from present 38% to 50% by 2030. This presents an opportunity, as
major part of the GDP will be contributed by the cities. This also presents a
challenge with increasing pressure on Land, Infrastructure and urban services.
Bangalore is the fourth
largest technology cluster in the world.
Bangalore contributes 30% of country’s IT exports. In terms of GDP, Bangalore is the 4th city in
the country. Bangalore is the
destination for more than 11% of FDI in the country. As per the estimates the
overall infrastructure requirement is about Rs.1.25 lakh crore and immediate
requirement is Rs 93,041 crore.
Nurturing growth of tier II cities is
important not only for taking off urbanization pressures on mega-cities but
also for the economic growth. As per
the estimate, our State’s tier II cities would require an infrastructure
requirement of Rs.26,183 crore by 2030.
In order to overcome the challenges of
rapid urbanization, the State, has taken up various State level schemes;
We are implementing Nagarothana for the
development of urban infrastructure in city corporations and small & medium
cities of the State.
The State has established Karnataka
Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), a special
purpose vehicle, to act as a nodal agency for implementation and monitoring of
projects which are being funded by multilateral agencies like World Bank, Asian
Development Bank etc;
I am equally privileged to
inform that; the State has initiated an extensive process of municipal
reforms. Computerization of urban local
bodies and Accounting reforms has brought transparency in the governance and
financial discipline;
We are also planning to introduce the
concept of Land Bank in all local bodies to speed up the Projects which are
mainly pending due to Land Acquisition problems.
The current focus of the Government is mainly
on water supply, sanitation and infrastructure development; All best efforts
are being made by the State for innovative means of financing like accessing
capital market, sourcing private sector funding etc. However, the same requires
Central support supplemented by State funds;
The
Central Government also needs to take initiative to build National level
political consensus to bring about reforms like regulatory framework for urban
services, governance and tax reforms involving constitutional and legislative
measures. We hope that Central
Government sets up a robust institutional mechanism with active participation
from States. Needless to say, Karnataka
will be in the forefront of these partnerships.
We are thankful to Government of India for
extending its support towards
infrastructure development of cities under UIDSSMT of JnNURM to the extent of
Rs.560 crore besides the Mission Cities of Bangalore and Mysore.
I am proud to say that Karnataka has been
ranked first in the country for overall implementation of JnNURM reforms; Under
JnNURM, 67 Projects with an investment of Rs.4610 crore have been approved so
far for both Bangalore and Mysore, of which, Rs.4071 crore has already been
spent;
The
State on its own has taken major initiative for providing housing for about
50,000 urban poor at an estimated cost of Rs. 920 crore under Vajapayee Housing
Scheme. The State is completing required
ground work for Rajeev Awas Yojana and expects the Central Government to
implement the scheme expeditiously. At present, Government of India has
approved 25 proposals to the tune of Rs.1,346 crore. The spread and scope
requires considerable expansion to make a significant difference. It is
requested to cover more cities and towns with increased budget.
We appreciate the idea that has been
initiated by the Central Government for development of 100 Smart Cities. We
believe Karnataka is ideally placed to take this concept forward. We hope
Karnataka will get at least 10 smart cities in this dream project.
The State is currently in
the verge of developing innovative Solid Waste management solutions for at
least 10 cities of the State, which can then be replicated for the entire
State. This would require adequate central assistance along with the technical
assistance for firming up the appropriate technology.
Water crisis is the major
issue in all developed cities. We look
forward a methodology from the Central Government where waste water can be
recycled and reused effectively.
Town
Planning Scheme is the important tool for Urban Development in the light of new
Land Acquisition Act. I hope, all State
Governments look forward for Central Policy that this scheme will be used
effectively. The State seeks Central assistance to open a new University in
Urban Planning.
We request the Hon’ble
Minister of Urban Development to clear all the proposals submitted by my
State.
Urbanization
is both a cause and consequence of development.
Sustaining 9% GDP target growth rate will require substantial investment
in the cities as they will contribute maximum to it;
All of us need to work collectively towards this goal.
Thank you all.
Jay Hind; Jai Karnataka.
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