AP CS hold review meeting on AMRUT scheme

Hyderabad, Sept 21 (INN): The Central Government has launched Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) with a view to improve the quality of life for all, by providing basis services viz., water supply, sewerage, urban transport, to all households and build amenities, as a National priority. All the outcomes are assessed in terms of Served Level Benchmarks (SLBs), Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao said.

The first meeting of State-level High Powered Steering Committee (SHPSC) was held today under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to discuss on funding pattern, operation and maintenance of projects, action plan for implementation of AMRUT.

For AMRUT, a set of 11 reforms are to be implemented in four years, including promoting e-governance, improving collection of various taxes, fee and user charges, augmenting double entry accounting, constitution and professionalization of municipal cadre, preparation of GIS-based master plans, devolution of funds and functionaries to urban local bodies, review of building by-laws, setting up financial intermediaries for pooling and disbursement of resources, credit rating of urban local bodies, energy and water audit and achieving Swachh Bharat milestones, Chief Secretary told.

Projects under AMRUT will be executed by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). In case the ULBs do not have adequate capacity to handle projects, the State Government may recommend in State Annual Action Plans (SAAP), upon a Resolution passed by the ULB, for the execution of the projects by specialized parastatal agencies of the State or Central Governments. Such arrangements should necessarily be executed by way of a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) amongst the State Government, the specialized parastatal agencies and the concerned Municipality. In such a case, the capacity of the ULBs will be augmented through the capacity building component of the AMRUT. The maintenance and upkeep of the created assets will be the responsibility of the ULB and the State Government.

Recently the Government of Andhra Pradesh established A.P Urban Greening and Beautification Corporation (APUGBC) for development of Green Spaces and Parks, which may be considered for implementation of the sector as the implementing agency. Under JnNURM, in all ULBs except GVMC and VMC projects were implemented by the Public Health Engineering Department. Similar strategy may be considered for AMRUT scheme.

Implementation of reform is an important objective of the Mission. One purpose of the Mission is to improve Governance through a set of reform. Reform are expected to make improvement in service delivery, mobilization of resources and making municipal functioning more transparent and functionaries more accountable.

As per guidelines, the primary purpose is to cover all households with water supply and sewerage. For this purpose Service Level Improvement Plan (SLIP) has to be prepared by each ULB. Government of India identified and approved 31 Urban Local Bodies (Amaravati - New Capital City) is one among 31) in Andhra Pradesh and State Annual Action Plan prepared with a total cost of Rs.660.00 Crores, for the first year 2015-16, for implementation of AMRUT cities.

The Andhra Pradesh Government shall transfer the funds to urban local bodies within seven days after receiving the funds from the Government of India. Achieving universal coverage for water supply and sewerage is a priority. Other bench marks will be targeted and achieved in step-by-step manner, i.e. called 'incrementalism', the Chief Secretary added.