Nagaland ULBs struggling with urban growth management
A view of Dimapur City, one of the fastest growing urban centre in Nagaland. The urban population in the state of Nagaland is presently 28.86 % as per Census 2011, saw a decadal growth rate of 67.38 % which is double the national average growth rate of 31.80 %. (Photo Courtesy: dimapur.nic.in)
Our Correspondent
Kohima | March 3
The urban population in the state of Nagaland is presently 28.86 % as per Census 2011. It saw a decadal growth rate of 67.38 % which is double the national average growth rate of 31.80 %.
The state witnessed the highest growth rate of urbanization in the country between the years 1981-2011, indicating that urban population is poised to overtake the rural population in the near future. This is also evident in the fact that rural areas recorded negative growth rate during the Census 2011, as per the Annual Administrative Report 2019-2020 of Municipal Affairs department tabled in the recent state assembly session here.
According to the report, the unprecedented urban growth taking place all over the country led to adoption of the 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1992 by the Government of India, with the primary objective being to improve management of urban growth by empowering Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) .
Accordingly, most of the current urban development programmes are aimed at implementing the Act through various mandatory and optimal reforms that both state governments and ULBs need to undertake to access central government assistance.
However, Nagaland could not utilize the 14th Finance Commission (FC) Grant of Rs 127.47 crore because the ULB elections could not be held due to widespread opposition particularly to the provisions for 33% reservation for women under the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2001. This crippled the ULBs and deeply paralyzed their output performance, it stated.
The report observed that larger towns and cities are facing ever increasing demands for sustainable, growth-inducing infrastructure such as health, education, roads and transport, solid waste management, water supply and sanitation, sewerage and seepage management etc.
It said that sanitation levels in the state have been improving due to provision of various amenities such as dustbins and toilets and widespread public awareness and participation under Swacch Bharat Mission. However, the ULBs still face major challenges in provision of sanitation services due to inadequate or non-availability of the requisite resources for processing and disposal of the solid wastes and acute lack of resources for purchasing sanitation vehicles and maintenance of manpower.
These gaps must be addressed for our urban areas to grow in an equitable and sustainable manner, it stated.
However, most of the ULBs in the stated are quasi urban, cash-strapped and struggling to provide even basic services; unable to meet the increasing demands due to low scope of revenue generation and also several newly notified ULBs are functioning without proper office buildings, the report stated.
It also noted that Kohima Municipal Council is the first ULB in the state to introduce decentralized system of Solid Waste Management for collection of waste, which is disposed at the scientific landfill at Lerie funded by ADB and executed by SIPMIU.
The report said that state government civil servants who are assigned additional charge as administrators presently look after all the ULBs since elections could not be conducted from 2010.
“In spite of the crippling resource crunches, the primary focus of the ULBs is to ensure that the basic sanitation services and the requisite level of urban infrastructures are available to ensure sustainable physical development and economic growth of the city, conservancy and management of solid wastes, registration of births and deaths, provision of parking lots and bus stops and to small extent provision of urban amenities depending on the availability of fund,” it said.
