Commonwelath Games, Delhi Metro suck half of urban development funds

Just two projects – the upcoming Commonwealth Games and the Delhi Metro railway – both based in one city have sucked up over half of this year's Plan budget for the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

In its report on the Ministry's demands for grants submitted to the Lok Sabha, the Ministry's standing committee has expressed “disappointment” that of the total budgetary allocation (Plan) of Rs.5457.84 crore for this financial year, about 54 per cent of the funds were allocated to these two projects.

While accepting that some enhanced funding was necessary, the Committee asked “whether the Ministry would be in a position to do justice to the other equally significant issues with hardly any funds in hand”.

As an example, the Committee pointed out that the funding for the ‘Water supply and sanitation' head has dropped from Rs.191.25 crore in 2004-05 to nil this year, as last year's unused funds of Rs.12.56 crore have just been carried forward. Several urban infrastructure funds have also dropped or seen only a marginal increase, prompting the Committee to observe that such issues were not being given requisite priority.

With regard to the Delhi Metro projects, the Committee recommended that the government speed up the process to start production of Metro Rail coaches within the country itself. The Committee also pulled up the government for poor implementation of the scheme to develop infrastructure in satellite towns around seven mega-cities.