Public Infrastructure and Services

To
Shri Salman Khurshid,
Union Minister of Water Resources,
Shramshakti Bhawan,
Rafi Marg,
New Delhi - 110001

2. Secretary, Union Ministry of Water Resources
3. Chairman, Central Water Commission
4. Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission
5. Member (Water), Planning Commission
6. Ms Aruna Roy, Chairperson, Working Group on Transparency, Accountability, Governance at National Advisory Council

 I pray to all my friends, brothers and sisters to not join the company in turning this valley into a monstrosity!” These are the powerful words by Narmada Devi from Village Padmallah that marked the flavor of a peoples' public hearing on the Devsari HEP.

This public hearing on the 3 April 2011 saw strength of 2000 people from all proposed Devsari HEP affected and surrounding villages of the Pinder valley. The hearing was organized by Bhu Swami Sangharsh Samiti and Matu Jan Sangathan and took place at the Sangam Maidan of Block Deval, Tehsil Tharali, District Chomoli, Uttarakhand. Public hearing at Deval was a peoples' response to the project proponent hearing at Chepdu on 20 January 2011.

To
Shri Jairam Ramesh
Union Minister of State (IC) of Environment and Forests,
New Delhi

Respected sir,

The MoRD has through this order, announced that this will be relaxed to 10% NRDWP funds, on a 100% Central share basis for all States.

This relaxation would be valid for 2010 – 11 and 2011 – 12. The balance 10% of NRDWP funds that will become available is to be spent on coverage of quality affected and / or non – quality affected habitations, on a 50:50 sharing basis.

Aurangabad, a city in central Maharashtra is in a drought prone region, and being a rapidly urbanising town, is facing a lot of pressure on ots water resources. Besides importing water there has been an increasing trend of ground water extraction.

In this context, a survey of groundwater use was conducted as part of a World Bank study on Indian groundwater management. The study was a collaboration between GW MATE(Groundwater Management Advisory Team) and GRASP (Grass Roots Action for Social Participation), an Aurangabad-based civil society organization working on community-based natural resource management.

Building bye-laws are a set of standards used to regulate various facets of a building everything from its design to its safety features. In these 'Model Building Bye-Laws', the Town and Country Planning Organisation (TCPO) under the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has created a guide for State Governments, Urban Local Bodies, Development Authorities to help them play a more effective role in enforcing the implementation of the master plans.

The first report titled “Heavy metal burden in coastal marine sediments of north west coast of India in relation to pollution” by M A Rokade, University of Mumbai uses the data on contaminants including metals in seawater, marine sediments and biota for the Mumbai- Bassein region, a high

. On the occasion of the World Anti- Dam Day, on March 14, 2011 there was a large demonstration under the banner of Bhu- Swami Sangharsh Samiti and Matu Jansangathan in the three villages which served as venues for the drama of project ‘public hearings’. An effigy of the Land Acquisition Act was also burned by the people.

The conflict is over how water is perceived, valued and treated. Water is life savior elixir. The importance of water as a vital resource to the life system and an essential component of societal development cannot be over emphasized. Over the years, many ancient civilizations emphasized on various mechanisms of water collection & distribution.

This report on Indian urban infrastructure and services is an outcome of the High Powered Expert Committee (HPEC) chaired by Isher Judge Ahluwalia set up by the Ministry of Urban Development in May, 2008 for estimating the investment requirement for urban infrastructure services. It is an inevitable outcome of the faster rates of growth to which the economy has now transited. Indeed, urbanisation is itself a process that will support growth. The Committee has made recommendations on how to deal with these challenges of urbanisation.

The Committee has held several meetings with officials from the Government of India, state governments and local governments and also met with academicians and other stakeholders such as Asian Development Bank with interest and expertise in Indian urban issues.

The report argues that the challenge of managing urbanisation will have to be addressed through a combination of increased investment, strengthening the framework for governance and financing, and a comprehensive capacity building programme at all levels of government. The Committee has projected very large investment requirements for providing public services to specified norms and also supporting the growth process. The challenge of financing these investments is inextricably linked with the challenge of governing the cities and towns of India.