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Title : Need to revise the categorization of cities being benefited under proposed National Urban Renewal Mission.
SHRI PRAHLAD JOSHI (DHARWAD NORTH): Sir, recently the Government of India has initiated a scheme, namely, Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. This was to improve the infrastructure in the urban areas. But unfortunately as far as Karnataka is concerned, only two cities, i.e., Bangalore and Mysore have been included in this. Hubli Dharwad which comes in my constituency is the second largest city in Karnataka. It also falls in the Northern part of Karnataka which is a backward area. In this context, it has been allocated Rs.50,000 crore for five years. This amount cannot be spent in five years. This apprehension has been expressed in some of the newspapers also[r13] .
In this context I would like to mention that spending a sum of Rs. 50,000 crore over a period of five years is a difficult task. So far, only 11 to 12 cities have been identified by the Central Government for this purpose. In this connection I would also like to bring to the kind notice of the Government that Hubli-Dharwad should be included in this project and Hubli-Dharwad is the second largest city in Karnataka in terms of population. But unfortunately successive Governments have neglected this city. It has the potential to open the doors for the development of entire northern Karnataka. The JNURM could be a great instrument for building the required infrastructure of this city. But unfortunately the Government has put this city in `C’ category. An aggressive mass agitation is going on because of this. Therefore, I would once again like to request the Government to include this city under the JNURM.