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Urban reforms on the anvil

By Alok Mukherjee

NEW DELHI JUNE 27. The Union Cabinet is likely to take up for consideration tomorrow a major initiative in urban sector reforms at the State level, which include repealing the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act through a resolution and removal of the rent control provisions.

According to official sources, the proposal calls for linking State-level urban sector reforms to a Central grant, which would initially have a corpus of Rs. 500 crores.

To get this grant, the States would have to rationalise the stamp duty in phases to bring it down to no more than five per cent by the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, reform the property tax system so that it could become a major source of revenue for the urban local bodies and levy of user charges by local urban bodies made reasonable.

The supplementary reforms that the States would have to take up include revision of bye-laws to streamline the approval process for the construction of buildings and development of sites, revision of municipal laws in line with the model legislation prepared by the Union Ministry for Urban Development, simplification of the legal and procedural framework for conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, introduction of property title certification systems and introduction of independent regulators for urban services.

The States can choose the reform components and would receive a pro rata amount based on a weightage system. However, no dilution of reform areas chosen by a State would be allowed and the States would have to perform in accordance with the given guidelines.

Sources said the latest reforms were basically directed at the small and medium townships so that the impediments in their development could be removed.

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