[India] Government activating new initiatives to end urban poverty: Jaipal Reddy

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Union Urban Development and Culture Minister S. Jaipal Reddy on Thursday told social editors that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government is very keen to alleviate urban poverty and replace it with urban renewal through schemes like the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission.

Speaking at the Sixth Editors Conference on Social Sector Issues-06 here, Reddy said there is a dichotomy between the growing urban population and sinking infrastructure in urban areas. He said the recent rains across India had shown how metros were still very vulnerable in so far as basic infrastructure was concerned.

Describing the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission as huge in its scope and size as well as in its qualitative link to exisiting reforms, Reddy said that there was a consensus among all states on the reforms to be applied, and confirmed that Maharashtra and West Bengal would get assistance under the mission only to projects related to water and sanitation, as they are averse to repeal of Urban Land Ceiling Act.

Reddy said that all state governments have accepted the need for scrapping the Land Ceiling Act.

He hoped that the government would be able to spend some money under the JNNURM in the last quarter of this fiscal. The Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns would address the infrastructure development in these urban centres.