JK urges Centre to delink funds from property tax reforms under JnNURM

NEW DELHI: The 6th National Conference on JnNURM was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at Vigyan Bhawan, here today.
Minister for Urban Development Mr. Kamal Nath, Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Kumari Selja and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia attended the Conference.
Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Tara Chand and Minister of State for H&UDD, Mr. Nasir Aslam Wani, represented J&K State.
Giving detail of reforms, the Deputy Chief Minister highlighted that the state has already implemented most of the reforms under JnNURM. He said property tax reforms have already been passed by the state legislative assembly and the same has been referred to the upper house, which has sent the bill to the joint select committee.
Delving on other reforms, he said Rent Control Reforms, Rationalisation of Stamp duty to less than five percent, Property title certification system and Computerised process of registration of land and property are to be done by Finance and Revenue departments and are being vigorously followed.
Speaking during the interactive session, Mr. Nasir Aslam urged the Central Government to de-link funding from reforms for at least two years so that various projects started under JnNURM are completed in time. The Minister highlighted the difficulties faced by the State government because nearly Rs. 646 crore of the sanctioned funds have been held back owing to Centre’s targets on urban reforms.
While stating that most of the administrative and legislative reforms have been implemented, the Minister said delinking funding from reforms and grant of extension of two years for implementation of reforms will pave way for completion of major projects undertaken under JnNURM. “We need this special concession given the fact that the State has suffered much on development front over the last many years.
Mr. Nasir Aslam also raised the issue of cost escalation of various projects in Jammu and Srinagar cities. “We propose to allow surrendering some un-implementable projects and the amount saved could be used for funding the escalation of cost of various projects in the two mission cities of Jammu and Srinagar,” the Minister said and proposed relaxing the straightjacket approach towards big and small towns in terms of devolution as the corporations still have manageable cadres which the small municipalities and councils are lacking.