Jammu, June 17: J&K government is contemplating to impose sanitation and property tax in all the urban areas as a first step towards making the urban local bodies self reliant.
 Official sources said the department of urban development is working on a concept to identify the broad reforms the urban areas will need to undertake as per the new guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Urban Development and World Bank.
 They said the union ministry has asked the state government to make the local bodies self reliant as envisaged under the scheme, Jawahar Lal Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), funded by the World Bank.
 “Certain new conditions have been imposed for enabling the state to apply for further funding under the scheme,” officials said adding,
 “The scheme was being implemented with center funding but the urban local bodies have to be made self reliant so that they are capable of running its own affairs”.
 Under the new condition all the urban bodies, including Srinagar Municipal Corporation and Jammu Municipal Corporation, will have to impose sanitation and property tax on the people living within Municipal limits, sources claimed adding, “We are working out nitty-gritty of the move”.
 The Departments of Local Bodies in Jammu and Srinagar have asked the Deputy Commissioners of all the districts, who are presently holding the charge of local bodies in view of the dissolution of Municipal councils and committees, to suggest ways and means to impose and realized the tax from the people.
 “We have asked the Executive Officers (presently DCs) to suggest the quantum of the tax to be imposed and also the means to collect it”, Director local body Jammu FC Bhagat told Greater Kashmir. He said that the tax will also be accompanied by facilities to be provided by the urban bodies.
 “Since the agenda under JNNURM is set, the only thing that could undergo change is the reform agenda, since we want to take up reforms to the next stage”, he said adding, there are several measures which have to be taken under the reform phase which include rationalization of stamp duty, repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act and imposition of user charges, for availing funding under JNNURM.
 Under the JNNURM, the Centre gives grants covering 50 per cent of the project cost for cities with population between one million and four million. For cities with population higher than four million, the Central grant is 35 per cent of the project cost. The remaining funding comes from the state’s kitty and the urban local bodies or para-statals.
 However, for Jammu and Kashmir Centre provides 80 per cent of the project cost. The sanctioned funds have been invested in various projects in areas such as water supply, sewerage, drainage, public transport system and building of roads and flyovers.
 The state of Jammu and Kashmir has received an amount of Rs 11736.80 lakh as the first installment (25 per cent of estimated cost) for four projects undertaken under JNNURM, which included Augmentation of Water Supply to Tangnar Zone(Zone V) of Greater Srinagar, Comprehensive sewerage scheme for Division-A of Greater Jammu, Comprehensive sewerage Scheme for Zone-III (Sector I) of Greater Srinagar and Augmentation of water supply for Zone-IV of Greater Srinagar.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST