Volunteers to help in implementation of urban schemes

The ministry of Urban Development has issued guidelines and asked state governments and Mission cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to hasten the process of appointing the City Voluntary Technical Corp and City Technical Advisory Groups which will act as watchdogs of implementing urban reform schemes.
According to the guidelines, these would be voluntary groups of professionally qualified persons in the sectors of urban planning, urban governance, urban engineering, legal and financial services and urban poverty.

Officials said the voluntary group will assist the municipal and urban authorities in 65 Mission cities across the country as experts and the decision to appoint them was taken after requests from the Urban Local Bodies.

"These professionals will have an advisory role in the city development activities and will assist the local authorities with their expertise in various fields of urban governance," an official in the ministry said.

The voluntary group will assist in the areas of urban engineering, urban planning, urban poverty, urban governance, urban environment, urban heritage and financial services.
According to the plan, the volunteers would be from the area concerned, having expertise in the seven identified areas and will provide specific local inputs for the implementation of the plans under the JNNURM.

The guidelines said that these groups would advise city governance and management and enlist community participation and ensure delivery of services.

They would also work on poverty reduction programmes, ensure transparency and accountability to citizens in programme implementation of JNNURM and help enlist involvement of citizens at grassroots level.