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MANGALORE: The urban development ministry in Karnataka has given its nod for upgrading three city municipal councils as city corporations. These include Tumkur, Shimoga and Bijapur CMCs, and the state cabinet is expected to okay the proposal when it meets on Thursday, said minister for urban development and Udupi district in-charge Vinay Kumar Sorake.
 
The process of upgrading urban local bodies from town panchayats to city municipal councils to the next higher level of urban administrative set up has been taken on the basis of the 2011 Census, Sorake told reporters here. Gram panchayats with a population of more than 10,000 and where 50% of its activities are non-agriculture based too will be upgraded into town panchayats, Sorake said, adding that government is gearing up to meet this urbanisation.
 
Acknowledging that the rapid urbanisation will call for massive infusion of funds on basic infrastructure, Sorake said the state government has submitted proposals worth Rs 10,000 crore to the Union ministry for urban development. "Since there is no state specific allotment of funds and is given on first-come-first serve basis, we have already submitted the proposal," he said, adding Centre’s share is 80%, 10% each of the state and the ULB concerned.
 
The ministry is also working out a road map to undertake capacity building for officials of urban local bodies where specialised training will be imparted to them. "This is a four-year programme," Sorake said, adding his ministry has selected 20 urban local bodies including the existing city corporations. A sum of Rs 1 crore each will be spent on training officials from chosen ULB for next four years as part of capacity building initiative, he said.
 
Observing that most ULBs suffer from financial crunch in pushing forth major development projects, Sorake said, "We have created a revolving fund of Rs 3,250 crore for the purpose." The fund will be utilised to provide low interest loan to ULBs that require funding to complete projects, he said, adding most projects pertaining to basic civic amenities such as laying of UGD and water project get stuck in land acquisition due to funds crunch.