By IANS
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday urged states to prepare time-bound action plans for providing affordable basic services to the urban poor in all major cities.
In a letter to chief ministers, the prime minister sought their personal attention to promote the concept of inclusive cities in which every citizen has reasonable and affordable access to basic amenities.
In the letter, Manmohan Singh said that while the states had responded to the challenges offered by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, there was need to introduce a component on providing basic services to the urban poor to implement the mission’s charter.
This component relates to providing basic entitlements and amenities to urban poor in terms of security of tenure, affordable housing, potable water and sanitation facilities while envisaging convergence of health, education and social security elements, the letter said.
The mission also seeks earmarking of funds in local body budgets for providing basic services to the urban poor.
The prime minister also urged the chief ministers “to direct each city to develop these plans using innovative resource mobilization models to finance the projects by combining funds provided by the central and state governments with community and private resources.”