Experts hail budget allocation for urban sector

Experts in India's housing and urban affairs sector are lauding the budget proposals presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. They are of the opinion that the budgetary allocation would certainly encourage investments.

New Delhi: Experts in India's housing and urban affairs sector on Monday hailed the Union Budget 2021-22, presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, saying that the budgetary allocation would certainly encourage investments.

A sum of Rs 54,581 crore has been allocated to the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry and distributed among several other components. Significantly, funds have also been allocated to other ministries for urban development.

"The budget is certainly very encouraging and it will trigger investment because cities provide economic development. The budget opens new avenues for expansion and improvement of water supply, roads, transport system and basic sanitation facilities," said Dr KK Pandey, Professor (Urban Management) and coordinator, centre for urban studies, Indian Institute of Public Administration.

Dr Pandey believes that the budgetary allocation will trigger productivity as 75 per cent comes from non-farming sectors, that's services and industry located in and around cities.

"The budget is in two-fold. One is the direct allocation and another through other ministries. The allocation of Rs 27,500 crore for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana followed by Smart city mission and AMRUT (Rs 13750) are really encouraging as these two provide infrastructure, services and shelter," said Dr Pandey.

The budget also envisages the affordable rental housing which will be built up by local bodies to accommodate people coming from rural areas and also urban poor.

"This has been announced keeping in mind the hardships faced by the people during COVID-19 pandemic," Dr Pandey said.

Echoing the view, Hitesh Vaidya, Director at the National Institute of Urban Affairs said that the budget brings back collaboration and convergence aspects strongly at the urban level.

"Great to see the focus on complete fecal sludge management, wastewater treatment, source segregation, management of waste from urban construction, bioremediation of legacy dump sites...creating a holistic ecosystem for managing waste and moving away from just constructing toilets," said Vaidya.

The budget 2021-22 also allocated Rs 2.87 lakh crore under Jal Jeevan Mission to provide full-fledged water supply to all urban local bodies with household tap connections.

Taking to ETV Bharat, senior urban affairs expert Prof Chetan Vaidya said that the budget is good for urban affordable rental housing.

"Swachh Bharat Mission too has positive changes in terms of focus beyond the construction of toilets. Support for urban bus transport in a public-private partnership is excellent initiatives," said Prof Vaidya adding that focus should have also been given on incentives for Municipal bonds and housing loans etc.

Given the COVID-19 expenditure, this is the best urban could expect and it will not lead to any major transformation for the urban housing sector, said Prof Vaidya.

Interestingly, the government has also accepted the 15th central finance commission's recommendations of total grants for duly constituted local government that add up to Rs 4,36,361 crore for the period 2021-26.

The government has also accepted a sum of Rs 8,000 crore for states as grants for incubation of new cities and Rs 450 crore for facilitating shared municipal services.