Infrastructure and Governance:

A view from the JnNURM

CPP 8th Annual International Conference on Public Policy & Management

IIMB, 12 August 2013

Matt Birkinshaw

MPhil/PhD Candidate

Geography & Environment

Jawaharlal Nehru National

Urban Renewal Mission

UPA’s ‘flagship’ urban policy

National programme for development of infra,

governance (UIG) and urban services (BSUP)

Aims at transforming 65 Indian urban areas

into ‘world class cities’ (IIDSSMT much wider)

Planned investment Rs100,000 crore

Central and state funds to be matched by

50% by ULBs from own or private sources

Funding conditional on municipal reforms

JnNURM Phase One (2005-2012)

a) Urban infrastructure development DPRs prepared in line with CDP, preference for PPPs

b) Good (entrepreneurial) governance Funding is conditional on ‘mandatory’ reforms to municipal

governance, fiscal policy and spatial planning – emphasis

on ‘bankable cities’

c) Decentralisation (74th CAA) State government must give municipalities (Urban Local

Bodies) greater control over urban development (including

water). Extent and nature of delegation is at state

discretion

d) Basic services Ring-fenced funding for the Basic Services Urban Poor

sub-mission

Reform conditionalities

State level (mandatory)

Adherence to 74th CAA

Reform of rent-control laws

Rationalisation of stamp duty on property

transfers

Repeal of ULCRA

Community participation laws providing for

area committees below ward level

Enactment of public disclosure laws

Reform conditionalities

Municipal level (mandatory)

Implementation of e-governance

Double-entry accounting

Rationalisation of property tax charges and

collection

User charges to cover operations and

maintenance of urban services

Provision of basic services to the Urban

Poor

Earmarking of BSUP funds

Governance & Infrastructure

‘Governing beyond the state’ Stoker 1998, Jessop 2002, Swyngedouw 2005

‘Good governance’ World Bank 1989, Abrahamsen 2001, Weiss 2000

Splintering urbanism Graham & Marvin 2001, Zerah 2008, Gandy 2008

Infra (& citizenship) research Anand 2011, Coelho 2005, Contractor 2011,

Graham et al 2013, Joshi 2011, Zerah 2008

Re-forming and

re-routing urban

governance?

ULB view:

JnNURM sub-mission allocations

JnNURM allocations by sector

JnNURM allocations by state

Transport spend by project type

Urban Infrastructure

& Governance

Basic Services

to the Urban Poor

Urban

Infrastructure

Development

Scheme for

Small and

Medium Towns

Integrated Housing &

Slum Development

Programme

Implementation

CAG (Auditor General) and Planning Commission reports:

Very low project completion rates (CAG gives 8.9%)

Very limited conditionality implementation

(+/- 20% in reporting, as distinct from practice)

Projects over-budget and over-schedule

Late take-up and release of funds

Utilisation certificates missing for 10,000 cr (10%)

Very limited municipal borrowing generated

Questions remain:

Does the Mission increase or decrease ULB capacity?

How does it impact on service delivery?

Human impacts (evictions, tariff-raises, accountability changes etc)?

Methods

Desk research

Policy literature

Media coverage

Academic work

Site visit (Summer 2012)

Semi-structured interviews (x30)

Review of primary documents (DPRS, CDP, Independent studies)

Introduction to ULBs ICT systems

Research questions

How and why:

a) are urban reforms unevenly implemented?

b) are urban reforms affecting the ULBs?

c) have new forms of governance been created?

d) can the limits of reform have a productive1 role?

1. cf Ferguson 1990 and Foucault 1991 on unintended outcomes and ‘productive failure’

Consultants

Involved in design, execution,

management and oversight of projects

Role of external organisations

(ADB, WB, MNCs)

Patching ULB capacity gaps

How to use this to develop

skills/knowledge rather than weaken?

Contractors

Increasing the number of contractors in

infrastructure projects has been found

to reduce incentives for corruption

(Davis 2004)

Raises the possibility of functional

fragmentation and reduction of

accountability (e.g. use of RTI for PPPs)

How do these points affect

understandings of the state in India?

Role of technology

Innovative use of mobile tech: sim-

cards, SMS and smart phones

Increase ULB’s real-time visibility of

resource flows (infra, tenders, internal

funds, workflow)

Allows fine grain location of leakages

Water network has high degree of

physical ‘informality’ – pipes not

traceable – manual intervention still req.

Governance challenges

Opposition to rationalisation of

infrastructure and governance

Stakeholders benefitting from low service

levels and informal governance in certain

sectors (land, construction, water)

Affected people – e.g. displacees, or

service users with ‘informal’ access.

Governance challenges

Unpopular reforms require financially

and politically strong ruling regime

‘Vertical governance’ – connection to

higher level politicians or external actors

(donors, MNCs) (Kumar & Landy 2009)

Governance challenges

Reforms are in tension with informal

economies (e.g. water, land, tenders)

Also introduces new informalities

(e.g. urban as state subject, role of private

sector, e-governance)

Monitoring and evaluation of JNNURM

(Sivaramakrishnan 2011)

Conclusions

Politically powerful ULBs better able to

access benefits of JNNURM

Tendency to bypass smaller and less

powerful cities and states

Accessing funds seems to have taken

precedence over development, creation of

assets over maintenance, infrastructure

over governance and BSUP lacking

Successful implementation requires

careful approach to avoid negative

impacts for the poor

Thanks for your attention

Questions and comments

will be welcome…

(लेकिन माफ़ िीजिए मै सिफ़़ अॉगे्रज़ी बोलता हू)