Ancient History:

Initiation of the Thought: With the advancement of time, when we look back into the history of India, we find that in the year 1857 , an uprising spread across India but did not succeed due to lack of proper vision, disunity among revolutionaries and justified directions from the leadership. However, inspite of that, the prevailing situation brought about by the uprising, shivered the heart of British authority and forced them to think over the situation again. Finally, the British Parliament took over the charges from East India Company by “Victoria Charter”, to rule over India.

This resulted in a sea change in administration all over India. Naturally, 24 Parganas was also a part of this change. The authority then decided to establish some self governing bodies to ensure better services. During the year 1869,”South Subarban Municipality” was set up, that comprised of Behala and extended up to the extreme southern part of South 24 Parganas. Sri Roy Bahadur Ambika Charan Ray became the first chairman of the newly formed Municipality to look after the Southern part of district that included villages like Harinavi,Malancha,Chanripota etc.

Initiation of the Great Effort: As time passed, consciousness of people around Harinavi , under the leadership of Zamindar Nabin Chand Ghosh aroused and they started fighting a legal battle demanding for a separate municipality.The battle continued for two years and finally the district magistrate endorsed the formation of a new municipality that was named “Rajpur Municipality” on the 1st of April 1876 covering an area of about 2sq miles and consisting of 5 wards .The wards included Jagaddal, Rajpur, Harinavi, Kodalia, Malancha etc.

During this period, Rajpur was famous for commercial purpose and hence truly the name “Rajpur Municipality”. However, a problem to set up the new municipality arose. Zamindar Nabin Chand with his supervisor Panchanan Ghosh and Yogendranath Mitra resolved the issue by handing over their ancestral property in the form of will to the government.The actual position of this place is in front of the present D.V.A.S High School that stretches upto the road beside the eastern side of ancient Ganges.The place is known as ‘Harinavi More’.

Growth of the Municipality: Thereafter, Jagaddal ,Malancha, Mahinagar, Kodalia, Rajpur, Subhasgram (old Chanripota), Harinavi, Baikanthapur etc. villages of 11 mouzas were brought under municipal jurisdiction and the total area of Rajpur Municipality at that time was 20.98 sq.km with 14 wards.

Our municipality is proud of the great luminaries of that period such as –Manabendranath Roy, Hari Kumar Chakraborty , Satkari Bandhopadhyay, Kanailal Banerjee, Dr.Kartic Basu,Rishi Rajnarayan Basu, Girish Vidyaratna, Srisha Vidyanidhi, Aghornath Chakraborty, Janakinath Basu, Salil Chowdhury, Anukul Chandra Das etc.

Recent History & Present Scenario: In the beginning of the last quarter of the twentieth century, a ruining situation arose. In the year 1980 our municipality became free from the administrator’s rule and a nominated board was formed in which Mr. Santimoy Bhattacharya and Mr. Kamal Bhattacharya were the first Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively in the left front governing period.
After one year a new municipal Board was formed through election and Mr. Santimoy Bhattacharya and Mr. Kamal Bhattacharya became the first elected Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively in the year 1981.

It was truly a turning situation from the point of municipal administration and the service provided by the municipality to the inhabitants. In accordance with the municipal constitution, multipurpose plans turned into real buildings and many dreams started turning true. And it was at this time that the overall performance index of Rajpur Municipality reached out and satisfied the local people.
Health related projects like CUDP-III, IPP-VIII etc. started being implemented during this period. A separate wing PWD for public works started performing during this period. The progress of Rajpur Municipality was significantly progressive in all respects. In 1981, the total population was 44,039 with literate of 66.6% and in 1991, the total population of this municipal area reached 64,000 with a literacy rate of 72% approximately.

After thorough survey backed by situational and technical analysis in view of rapid urbanization in and around Rajpur Municipality including those of the adjoining Gram Panchayats, the Government of West Bengal finally took the decision to extend the jurisdiction of Rajpur Municipality.
This resulted in the creation of the present form of Rajpur Municipality along with some added areas of the erstwhile adjacent Gram Panchayats (full six) and parts of four Gram Panchayats respectively on the 16th of December, 1993.

The erstwhile Rajpur Municipality, before merging, had only 11 mouzas. Thereafter, 26 mouzas were included in it and the newly formed municipality came to be known as “Rajpur Sonarpur Municipality” with an area of about 49.25 sq.km and a population of about 2, 28,000.00. Sri Kamal Ganguly and Sri Pannalal Dey were the first Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively during the time of nominated board of the newly formed urban local body. On the 15th of May, 1994, a new municipal Board was formed through election and Sri Kamal Ganguly and Sri Raghu Basu became Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively.
In order to improve the services provided by the municipal body, ward no.2 &18 were delimited and divided into two halves on 23rd March, 2009.As a result of this, the total no. of wards became thirty five (35).During this period Sri Kamal Ganguly and Sri Tarit Chakraborty were the Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively.

Following is the brief description of all municipal boards starting from the year 1969:

In order to provide better citizen centric welfare services, five (5) local offices in addition to the main office at Harinavi were set up by this Municipality. The local offices are:

1. Garia Local Office (Ward no. 1 to 7)
2. Sonarpur Local Office (Ward no. 8 to 15)
3. Rajpur Local Office (Ward no. 16 to 26)
4. Mahamayatala Local Office (Ward no. 27 to 31)
5. Boral Local Office (Ward no. 32 to 35)

With the establishment of the above local offices, relationship between inhabitants of the municipality and the municipal administration has improved immensely. This has made it possible to accomplish various plans in reality. Based on the overall evaluation criteria, Rajpur Sonarpur Municipality has attained second(2nd) place out of a total of 126 municipalities of West Bengal in the financial year (2003-2004). It is also satisfactory to note that the average per capita expense of the municipality stands upto Rs.343/- till the last financial year.
With the active co-operation from the members of the Chairman-in-Council, Board of Council, six standing committees related to important departments, Poura Sakshrata Samity etc. at central level and ward committee, Ward Education Committee, Mother Teacher Association, Nagarik Committee ,Beneficiary Committee etc. at ward level , Rajpur Sonarpur Municipality has since then shown an upward trend since the last few years.

Sensitive habitants of the municipality with their optimistic views turned the political situation of the municipality in the election held on 27th June, 2009. Trinamool Congress took over the charge of this historical institution. Sri Indubhusan Bhattacharya and Firdousi Begum were elected as the Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively with the aim to serve the “Maa Mati Manush” of this municipality.

Service provided:
1. Trade license (Certificate of enlistment)
2. Providing legal advice by Law Cell
3. Permission of Hoarding & Advertisement
4. Issuing of Warrision Certificate.
5. Mid-Day-Meal programme.
6. Distribution of N.G.R (Wheat)
7. Distribution of relief materials (Clothing & Garments)

Service provided:
1. Mutation
2. Interim Assessment
3. Interim

Service provided:
1. Construction & maintenance of road, drain, culverts, park, playground etc.
2. Execution of all civil construction works and infrastructural development at slump areas, institutions etc. under different projects such as B.R.G.F., B.S.U.P., K.U.S.P. etc.

How to get the service:
Construction & maintenance of road, drain, culverts, park, playground etc.

Procedure for sanctioning a project:
A. Proposal of the project along with a statement about the necessity of the project is to be placed by the beneficiary to the local councillor/ward committee.
B. Proposal of the project is to be finalised in DDP
C. Proposal of the project is to be finalised in ADP
D. Councillor/Ward committee and engineer prepare the scheme and estimate the cost of the project.
E. The scheme is approved in board meeting.
F. A/C department sanction the fund.

Process of execution of a project:
A. Detailed design and estimation is done by the engineering department.
B. Tender for the work is floated and then the lowest tenderer is finalized.
C. Work order is given to the lowest tenderer.
D. Meeting with contractor/beneficiary along with ward committee and engineer-in-charge is conducted.
E. The work is started under the supervision of department as well as beneficiary/councillor.

To whom the proposal to be submitted:
Local councillor

In problem whom to contact & where:
A. Local councillor
B. Engineer-in-charge of local office

Service provided:
All types of building plan

Service provided:
1. Non-Residential License
2. Food Licence
3. Cremation Certificate
4. Burial ground Certificate
5. Birth / Death registration Certificate
6. Supply of Drinking Water tank (500 gallon).
7. Hearse service (Human dead body carrier)
8. Carcass Van service (Animal dead body carrier)
9. Septic tank / Dug Well Latrine / Soak Pit clearing service

Like most of the municipality of the state Health Department, this municipality also discharges services mainly through CUDP-3 and IPP-8 Health Projects for the enlisted ( enlistment preparation start from February – March of every year so that list can be followed from April ) economically poor section of the municipal population.

Almost all the workers of the department are contractually engaged on part-time honorarium basis. They generally discharge services towards the preventive aspect through health awareness program to prevent occurrence and spread of communicable diseases regarding Maternity and Child Health Care.
They also give some primary health care services to the enlisted CUDP-3 and IPP-8 Health Projects families/Beneficiaries. However they discharge services beyond project population during any epidemic, any National Health Programmes like Routine Immunisation, Pulse Polio etc.

Under these CUDP-3 and IPP-8 Health Projects municipal health department give Curative services to all categories of people not only of this municipality but also People of adjacent ULB and Panchayet areas, at a very nominal charge through two Extended Specialist OPDs, one Regional Diagnostic Centre and one Maternity Home. Proposal of further improvement on curative aspect is under consideration and needs Manpower support particularly technical manpower from the state govt.

Service provided:

1. ROUTINE IMMUNISATION
2. COMMON PATHOLOGICAL, ULTRASONOGRAPHY, RADIOLOGICAL / X-ray INVESTIGATIONS
3. GENARAL & SPECIALIST MEDICAL CONSULTATIONS
4. DOOR to DOOR HEALTH AWARENESS GENERATION and PRIMARY HEALTH SERVICE DELIVERY TO ENLISTED POOR CUDP-3& IPP-8 FAMILIES
5. IMPLEMENTATION OF JANANI SURAKSHA YOJONA
6. DISTRIBUTION OF RELIEF MATERIALS (CLOTHINGS & GARMENTS)
7. ANTE-NATAL , POST-NATAL and GYNAECOLOGICAL OPD AND INDOOR WIH CAESAREAN FACILITY
8. IMPLEMENTATION OF VARIOUS NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAMMES LIKE PULSE POLIO ,DOTS , FILARIA etc.

Whom to contact & where:

1. For services under Sl. No:- 1, 7, 8 & 10
Respective ward Health workers, Health Supervisors at S.C or respective ward councilors at ward office.
2. For services under Sl. No:- 2, 3 & 4
Technicians of respective departments at respective units.
3. For services under Sl. No:- 5 & 6
Medical Officers/Staff of respective ESOPD.
4. For services under Sl. No:- 9
Administrative Officer at Matri Sadan.

Service provided:

This department is responsible for all electrical works such as install and maintenance of electrical equipments and street lamps at the area of all 35 wards, municipal markets, buildings and municipal hospital. This department also maintains the Telephone service system of the municipality.

Service provided:

1. Formation of TCG & UWSP
2. Vocational Training
3. USEP Bank Loans
4. IGNOAPS & NFBS and Other Social Assistance Programmes

How to get the service:
Procedure to get the above services:

1. For all the services under SJSRY department, beneficiary must belong to BPL family.
2. Information regarding new programmes is circulated to local Councillors.
3. Further information at beneficiary level is being circulated by Councillors to their respective wards.
4. The beneficiaries will have to collect forms from C.O (Community Organiser) of the concerned local office.
5. The application forms have to be submitted to local Councilor.
6. Approved applications are forwarded by local Councillors to the department.

Whom to contact & where: Community Organizer
Concerned Local Office
Time required:
As per the project requirement

In problem whom to contact & where:
Community Organizer,
Concerned Local Office
DDP (2007-2012)

Executive Summary
As per the 74th amendment of the West Bengal Municipal Act the ULBs are envisaged as the third tire of governance with Centre and Sate being the preceding ones. More over the rapidly changing national scenario in terms of globalisation and decentralisation the role of the ULBs has taken a centre stage. The rapid urbanization has also put a lot of pressure on the municipal authorities to keep up to the standard of services delivered.
Keeping pace with this, it was perceived to be of utmost importance that these ULBs prepare a development plan.In line with this the ULBs have engaged themselves in the preparation of a Draft Development plan. Based on this the ULBs would deliver its services to its residents in the next five years. For each of the year an Annual development Plan would be drafted to carry out the comprehensive development work throughout the municipal area.

Vision
To prepare a comprehensive plan for the period 2007-2012 (First Generation), it was essential to have a futuristic vision for the municipality towards which the planning may be framed. The vision was defined what the leadership desires to see their city achieve over the next 5-10 year period.
Vision is to achieve pro-poor, transparent and effective urban development and good governance along with improving on the basic infrastructural services provided to all, living conditions, healthy environment, educational standards, with special employment generation programmes for the poor, marginalised and economically vulnerable groups people.

Preparation Process
The process of preparation of this plan has been essentially a participatory one. To ensure participation at all the stages, different stakeholders were brought together to gather in-depth views and opinion on various aspects of municipal service delivery mechanism. Process overview: steps and events
Preparation of the DDP involved various stages. All the stages had involvement of different group of stakeholders to enrich the planning process. Following are the different tasks taken up for launching DDP.

1. Central workshop at the Municipal Level
DDP was launched to introduce the development planning process and the DDP in the Municipality. The key objective of this Step was to create awareness of the DDP among the key stakeholders (including councillors, ULB staff, ward committees, CDS and local citizens) in the Municipality.

2. Orientation and sensitisation workshop
Subsequent to the Launch Workshop, Rajpur Sonarpur Municipality had organized Orientation and Sensitisation Workshops at a ward level, to rollout the process of participation at the ward level. CIC members along with a team of officials (including the members of the technical groups) led the process.
To make the public aware of these workshops, an Awareness Campaign in the municipal area was undertaken through distribution of pamphlets, leaflets etc. in the wards.

3. Formulation of DDP Policy Groups and Technical Groups
The Chairperson of Rajpur Sonarpur Municipality heads DPG. The Committee oversees the DDP preparation process and provide guidance to the DDP Technical Groups. Where as the Day-to-day responsibilities for preparing the DDP is on the DTGs. There are three DTGs for each of the three areas of planning, Municipal Infrastructure, Land use and Environment – the Component 1; Social and Livelihoods Development – the Component 2 and Municipal Institutional Strengthening – the Component 3.

4. Planning Workshop
This workshop was held on 23.08.2005 to estimate the timeline and overall resource availability for the DDP Planning Period including the technical expertise under the disposal of the municipality.

The areas covered under this workshop were:
• Sub-components of each of the 3 components to be taken up for planning as well as the areas to be covered in each of the sub-components.
• Roles and responsibilities of each of the 3 DTGs
• Roles and responsibilities of each member of the DTGs and DPG
• External support required for preparing proposals for each sub-component
• Overall time frame for DDP preparation and time frame for each stage of DDP preparation
• Dates of key workshops, including “Municipal Visioning & Problem Identification Workshops”, future “Sensitisation Workshops” and meetings with Ward Committees.
• Estimate budget for preparation of DDPs – approval for this budget should taken from the Board of Councillors

5. Formulation of Vision and Development Objectives
A workshop was held on 15.11.2005 to arrive at a Municipal level “Vision” and to finalize the development objectives of the individual sub-components under DDP.
Development objectives are set realistically to align with the overall municipal vision and are addressed in the subcomponent plans.

6. Problem Identification Workshop
A workshop was conducted on 18.12.2005 with the local residents, eminent persons, representatives from CMU, different officials, technical and policy group representatives and so on to identify the major issues/problems that are required to be addressed within the next five year as being perceived by the local residents. This workshop was held to gather the point of views of the locals, which have helped immensely while designing the different surveys, and also to carry out the remaining processes even more successfully.

7. Surveys & Studies
The data, records available with the municipality were at first studied in detail. Subsequently a few surveys were also conducted to meet up the information gap. Moreover, the technical group has exchanged its views with that of other related Govt, agencies to prepare the plans of respective sub components.
The major emphasis on this planning process was to involve the people for whom the plans are prepared, to ensure participations at the grass root level. Since 1980s there has been initiatives to involve people through formation of Nagarik Committee comprised of locals of the specific area.

The following surveys were conducted:
1. Infrastructure Survey: This survey was conducted to analyse the prevailing status of the municipal infrastructure namely, road, drains, water Supply, Electricity, educational and health related institutions and so on.
2. Land Use Survey: This would give us an overview of the current land use practice prevailing in this area. The detailed formats are attached in the Annexure. This survey detail will be useful to plan on the availability of land for different infrastructural usage.
3. Baseline Survey: Municipality has engaged an external agency to draw the baseline survey. This is a tough work for a municipality with area 49.25 sq. Km. yet the work is under progress.
4. Citizens Satisfaction Survey: This was a citizen satisfaction survey carried out on a sample basis in each ward. It aims at deriving the quality of current standards of services imparted through the different departments of the municipality as perceived by the citizens themselves. A sample of around 150-200 households’ per ward was selected in ‘right hand rule’ method to conduct the survey, which will cover all stratum of the population residing within the municipal jurisdiction.

8. The secondary data and reports referred
• Vision 2025
• Census Reports till 2001
• Different master Plans Prepared by KMDA on issues like traffic and transportation, Drainage, Sewerage & Sanitation, Water Supply and so on.
• Integrated Development Plan of Sonarpur and Baruipur.
• Past survey details conducted by Municipality
• GIS conducted at an earlier stage
• Land use maps prepared by KMDA on Old Rajpur Municipality and on panchayat areas later included within the municipality • UDPFI Guidelines
• Integrated Development Plan for Baruipur-Sonarpur by KMDA
• All Guidelines as being supplied by the CMU

9. Stake Holders Meeting
Apart form the surveys and studies conducted, a no. of stakeholders’ meetings were conducted to have participatory views from the groups itself. Meetings were held with RCVs, representatives from banks and financial institutions, doctors, medical practitioners and other related stakeholders, representatives of formal and informal sectors both manufacturing and services, school authorities, ward education committees and other related stakeholders, promoters and developers, business organisations and shop keepers associations, different transport unions including auto, van, rickshaw, bus and so on. Other than these a number of Govt. meetings with Govt. level stakeholders have also been conducted with representatives from WBSEB, Irrigation department, PWD, PWD Roads, KMWSA and so on.

10. Ward Wise Problem Identification Work Shop
Ward committees of all the thirty-three ward committees were consulted on the different issues which are identified through surveys and other stakeholder consultations exercises. For this purpose meetings with each of the ward committees were held as per through out the month of July. The ward committees filled in the formats provided for capturing the issues at separate booth level meetings and then compiled the same into ward level.
The problems that were identified through guided participatory discussions with all the thirty-three ward committees. The ward committees were asked to fill up a format having provision for issue prioritisation, problem identification and relevant suggestive measures as perceived by its members.
Based on the findings and technical analysis, suggestions put forward by the Focus group and ward level discussions, a number of plans have been prepared to be executed during the DDP tenure. Once the plans were conceived an exercise was carried out to analyse whether the projects drafted meets up with the sector wise objectives and vision set by the municipality beforehand.

11. Preparation of Financial Plan and Budgetary Allocation
The Financial Plan (FP) of Rajpur-Sonarpur Municipality (RSM) have been prepared in Version I and II keeping in view the objectives set under DDP for improvement of financial position of RSM.
The FP Version I contains the projections for five years from 2007-08 to 2011-12 incorporating proposals for revenue income enhancement, revenue expenditure management and asset management initiatives. The detailed assumptions and basis for projections made in FP Version I have been built up on the basis of past trend analysis and proposals for finance improvement.

The FP Version II has been prepared for five years from 2007-08 to 2011-12 incorporating the project proposals formulated and prioritized sub-component wise under Component 1, 2 and 3 of DDP. The individual project cost in terms of capital expenditures and any related revenue incomes and expenditures have been phased into the plan period of five years as per priority and fund availability.

The projects formulated under the different subcomponent level plans are then prioritised to match the fund availability. The projects funded through tied funding are first allocated the fund for and then the remaining projects are re-prioritised across the subcomponents for untied fund allocation. Source of funds will be finalised during the preparation of annual plan.

Once the plans were formulated and a draft budgetary allocation was made the draft plan was sent for public validation. 10,000 copies of the executive summary booklet of DDP were circulated across different wards to gather the feedback on the plans prepared. Subsequently ward level meetings were held to gather the feedback of public on the plans prepared for the next five years. A feedback form was circulated to the citizens and almost 500 feedbacks were received from across the wards. These were then sorted initially and a total of 150 feedbacks were put forward to the DPG. Few of them were incorporated in the revised plan document. Thus the participation at the final level was also ensured.

The ULB is going to develop Second Generation DDP for the next five years starting from 2012-13 to 2016-17.

ADP
Rajpur Sonarpur Municipality have prepared a Draft Development Plan for a tenure of five years from 2007-08 to 2011-12. Under this the ULBs have prepared annual plans which would guide them to take up different projects in a particular year. The Rajpur Sonarpur Municipality have also prepared its ADP for the year 2010-11.

The Annual Development Plan will therefore only be the annual segment picked up for the respective years from the DDP document. The objective of preparing an ADP is to put together a plan for the resources required during one financial year.

The Annual Development Plan for this year comprises of projects that aim at providing services essential to sustain economic development and services that aim at providing the basic needs for improvement of quality of life and enhancement of the productive efficiency of citizens. Some projects are continuation of those which were implemented in previous fiscal years.

Major part of the external fund for this year comes from KUSP and JNNURM while BRGF also contributes comprehensively. BSUP, the integrated housing services for the Urban Poor and environment friendly Management of Solid Waste comes under the umbrella of JNNURM. The state Govt. will be having a share of funding in JNNURM with funding through other heads too. The rest will be funded by the ULB.

The major projects that are being continued and undertaken this year are BSUP Ph-II housing and infrastructure, introduction of GIS activity, development and installation of web portal under KUSP programme. Developmental interventions for Education, Health, Local Economic Development, Organizational Development, Capacity Building and Instilling Awareness among Citizens regarding several Issues are solely funded by KUSP along with its financial support for Infrastructural Development for Slum and Non-slum areas pertained to ULB.

KUSP
KUSP Goals:
• Reduced Poverty in West Bengal.
• Improved Quality of Life and opportunity for poor people in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area.
• Improved Urban Planning and Governance in the KMA.
• Improved access to Urban Services.
• Economic Development promoted.

The KUSP project is so designed that sustainability becomes a part of its makeup, or you may call 'the' obligatory part. Project aims to reach this goal by interacting at different levels of governance and as well as with different set of stakeholders. The proposed courses of actions are as follows:

Strengthening of Urban Governance:
i. Municipal Level Reforms - Administrative, Technical, Revenue and Accounts.
ii. Identification of the responsibilities of -

a. Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
b. State Level Agencies.

The project aims to become sustainable by interacting at different levels of governance and as well as with stakeholders:

1 Kolkata Metropolitan Planning Committee (KMPC)
2 Municipal Affairs Department (MAD)
3 Directorate of Local Bodies (DLB)
4 Institute of Local Govt. & Urban Studies (ILGUS)
5 State Urban Development Agency (SUDA)
6 Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA)
7 Municipal Engineering Directorate (MED)
8 West Bengal Valuation Board (WBVB)

iii. Tools required to facilitate capacity building
a. Training
b. Additional Manpower
c. Computerization
d. Creation of Database.

KUSP envisions to improve the livelihood status of urban poor by appraising different sectors in a focused manner. Some important aspects are specified below:
Social Development – Strengthen policy framework for informal settlements, institutionalize pro-poor planning, develop framework for poverty monitoring, develop uniform procedures and capacity of ULB functionaries, Consolidate BPL surveys, empower the poor through neighborhood groups.
Governance – Capacity building of ULBs and facilitators like DLB, ILGUS, SUDA, MED, WBVB, networking of stakeholder agencies. Economic and Finance – Facilitate policy changes for revenue enhancement of ULBs and better accounting and financial systems, self-sufficiency of The ULBs , maximum benefits for the poor.
Enterprise Development – Develop sustainable and cost-effective strategies to evaluate the citizens’ needs in general and in particular for encouraging entrepreneurship; market integration linkages, Identify the job oriented informal and manufacturing sectors for the poor especially women; SCs; minorities and slum dwellers, participation of local private sector to improve civic services.
Environment – Prepare strategic environmental plan for the KMA and ULBs, include environmental considerations into planning at municipal and trans-municipal levels, preparation of a simple but cross-sectored ‘state of the environment’ report and ensuring that ULBs have the skills and resources necessary to plan and manage the urban environment.
Water Supply – Improve efficiency of distribution and rehabilitate water supply infrastructure.
Sewerage and Sanitation – Improve access, identify least-cost solutions, rehabilitate existing infrastructure.
Solid Waste Management (SWM) – Increase community awareness and partnerships between SWM operators, Community Based Organizations and the municipalities.
Transport – Improve access for the poor.
Slums – Take improvement projects with a broader perspective.

BSUP
There are many Problems in urban growth in India, but among them an increase in the proportion of specially in the ‘metros’ and other large cities have been prominent. Generally, the poor inhabit such locations and their growth has often occurred independent of any surge in prosperity through large scale in industrialization. Hence, the level of urbanization and the rate of urban expansion may not always be caused by the ‘pull’ of economic prosperity and opportunity in the cities; it is sometimes caused by the ‘push’ from rural areas due to significant changes in the mode of production in agriculture…in which there is a steady increase in the proportion of the rural population who are compelled to seek a living outside agriculture.

As per the 2001 estimate, the slum proportion in Indian cities is estimated to be 61.8 million. The ever increasing slum population is causing tremendous pressure on urban basic services and infrastructure. The rising urban population over the years has given rise to increase the number of urban poor. The ever increasing slum population is causing tremendous pressure on urban basic services. In order to cope with the problems the need to draw to draw up a coherent urbanization policy to implement projects in select cities on mission mode was felt. The duration of the JNNURM is seven years beginning from the year 2005-06.

The mission objectives are:
• Focused attention to integrated development of Basic Services to the urban poor.
• Provision of Basic Services to the Urban Poor including security of tenure at affordable prices, improved housing, water supply, sanitation and ensuring delivery through convergence of other already existing universal services.
• Ensure adequate investment of funds to fulfill the deficiencies in the Basic Services to the Urban Poor.
• Secure effective linkages between asset creation and asset management so that the basic Service to the Urban Poor are maintained efficiently and becoming self-sustaining over time.
• Scale up delivery of civic amenities and provision of utilities with emphasis on universal access to urban poor.
The policy and programs of recent years show a shift from the earlier emphasis of ‘slum free cities’. In majority of the slums it has been found that attempts of relocating of slums would have adverse economic consequences. Furthermore, relocating of slums to outskirts of the city would lead to taking the slum dwellers far away from their working place. So, this will make the matter worse than welfare of the slum dwellers. Keep this in mind, focus has been put on construction of housing and development of infrastructure facilities at the present location of the slums.

The Environment Improvement in Urban Sector (EIUS), in operation since 1974, has been partially successful in improving the living environment of slum dwellers. The scheme suffered from lack of community involvement in planning, implementation and monitoring of the program. Although some successes have been achieved, the Jawaharlal National Urban Renewal Mission for the basic Services to the Urban Poor is perhaps the first major positive approach to addressing the issues related to slums. The mission’s aim is to establish clear long term strategies that address the following issues:

• Land titles
• Greater effectiveness of urban poverty-eradication programs
• Public awareness-building programs on slum population
• Relocation of unauthorized new slums around canals and roads
• Community participation and clear understanding of the role of each actor and stakeholder
• Poverty reduction approaches to slum improvement
• Municipal institutional arrangements, capacity building and institutional strengthening.

Ackground:

The Cities have acted as the engines of economic growth and has played a vital role in the country’s socio-economic growth, transformation and change. The exponential increase in population and unplanned growth has resulted in rapid urbanization, which has created enormous pressure on the availability of land and infrastructure with the result that most cities and towns are severely stressed in terms of infrastructure and availability of basic services.

As per 2001 population Census, 283.35 million people reside in Urban Area. This constitutes 27.8% of the total population of the country. The rising Urban population has also given rise to increase in the number of urban poor living in the difficult circumstances in the slums. As per 2001 census the slum population is estimated to be 61.8 million, the ever increasing number of slum dwellers causes’ tremendous pressure on urban basic services and infrastructure.

The Government of India has defined slum areas where buildings are unfit for human habitation (Slum Area Act, 1956). Physically, slums consists of clusters of hutment comprising several rooms constructed with building materials where each room is inhabited by a family sharing a common latrine without arrangement for water supply, drains, disposal of solid waste and garbage within the slum boundaries. Apart from degrading environmental conditions, slums in the urban settlements are also characterized by almost total absence of community and recreational facilities.

The existence of slums in urban areas essentially reflects urban poverty and despite the efforts to discourage slum dwellers, their number has been increasing. This puts tremendous pressure on urban basic services and infrastructure. Nearly 26 million persons lived in slums in 1981 accounting for over 17 percent of Indian urban population. In 1991 the number of persons living in slums increased to 46 million accounting for over 21 percent of the urban population. The number of people residing in slums in 2001 is over 61 million. The problems are expected to be further aggravated as the level of urbanization goes up and the urban population goes up and the urban population comes closer to the level of the rural population is going to be living in slums.

Slums were often viewed as – “Eyesores”; “Rings of Misery”; “Creeping Cancers”. However, the slums provide support to cities in the provision of services and act as reservoirs of cheap labour and contribute a significant proportion of urban income through the informal sector. The major problems of slum population are lack of security of land tenure, potable drinking water, sanitation employment, economic opportunities, facilities of health, hygiene, child care, education, skill acquisition, access to credit, proximity of shelter to jobs and affordable and acceptable shelter.

There has over the years, been a paradigm shift in the Government’s slum policy prescriptions. Originally, a slum free cities policy was prescribed. However, looking at the social dimensions of the whole problem and the various economic activities carried out by the slum dwellers. This concept has a given way to rehabilitation of slum dwellers. It has been recognized that there is an urgent need to provide an integrated and holistic approach to address the present situation.

The Sub-Mission on Basic Services to the Urban Poor(BSUP) under the JNNURM has been launched with thrust on integrated development of slums through projects for providing shelter, basic services and other related civic amenities with a view to provide utilities to the urban poor.

The objectives of the program are as follows:
1. Focused attention to integrated development of Basic Services to the Urban Poor in the cities covered under the Mission.
2. Provision of Basic Services to Urban Poor including security of tenure at affordable prices, improved housing, water supply, sanitation and ensuring delivery through convergence of other already existing universal services of the government for education, health and social security.
3. It will be carefully noticed that the urban poor are provided housing near their place of occupation.
4. Secure effective linkages between asset creation and asset management so that the basic services created in the cities, are efficient and self-sustaining at the same time.
5. Ensure adequate investment of funds to fulfill deficiencies in the Basic Services to Urban Poor.
6. Focus on urban renewal program for the old city areas to reduce congestion.
7. Scale up delivery of civic amenities and provision of utilities with emphasis on universal access to the urban poor.

Abstract:

1. Project : Basic Services to the Urban Poor(BSUP)
RAJPUR SONARPUR MUNICIPALITY
2. Nodal Agency : Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority
3. Component Wise Project Cost : RS. 4447.71 lacs

News & EventsBlood Donation Camp ( 14-Dec-2012 )

Municipality has organised a blood donation camp with the association of Haemophilia Society on 14th December, 2012. An excellent response was received from all the levels of our workers, administrators and elected members.
A total count of 79 blood donors made the program a great success. Thanks to all who were involved in this program actively or passively.