Tamil Nadu for mission to develop small, medium towns

Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami urged the Centre to launch a dedicated mission or programme through the Union Urban Development Ministry to develop small and medium towns in order to address the issue of outward migration.

The CM also sought flexibility in Smart City Mission guidelines to implement basic infrastructure projects. As smart city guidelines focus on area based development envisaging infrastructure development in selected portions of the city, the rest of the city gets deprived of infrastructure, thus causing imbalance.
Though infrastructure facilities could be provided under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), the allocation under this scheme would be inadequate to meet the needs of the bigger cities.

Hence, the Union Urban Development Ministry should make the Smart City guidelines flexible to implement basic infrastructure projects on pan city basis as well, based on the needs and aspirations of the city dwellers, Mr. Palanisami stressed.

In a memorandum submitted to the Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu at the Secretariat here on Sunday, the CM urged the Centre to approve the Smart City proposals for Tiruchy, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Erode, Tiruppur and Dindigul at the earliest.

Further, he suggested that a dedicated mission or programme could be launched through the Urban Development Ministry to develop small and medium towns in order to address the issue of outward migration. Apart from requesting the Centre to declare two corporations, six municipalities, and 50 town panchayats, which have already submitted proposals to the Centre, as Open Defecation Free (ODF) cities and towns, soon, Mr. Palanisami sought the formulation of a special package within PMAY - HFA (Urban) on a 50:50 sharing pattern for constructing  one lakh multi-storied flats including related infrastructure to house the houseless and people living in slums within the city at a total cost of Rs 10,000 crore.

Also, CRZ rules should be amended to permit TN government to redevelop existing slum tenements lying in CRZ areas to meet the housing demands of fishermen.