Individual capacity building of urban local body officials in AMRUT cities of Rajasthan, India
Student name: Ms Noor Fatima Zaidi
Guide: Dr Bhawna Bali
Year of completion: 2017
Host Organisation: Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Ms Anuttama Dasgupta
Abstract: The ‘Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation’ (AMRUT) was
launched by the Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, on 25 th June, 2015
along with the ‘Smart Cities Mission’ and ‘Housing for All, by 2022’. The focus of
AMRUT is on an incremental rejuvenation of urban India, ensuring universal
provision of basic services such as robust sewerage networks and water supply.
For this purpose, it is imperative that government officials such as engineers and
town planners, at the Urban Local Body level are sensitive to the urban scenario
in their own cities. This requires them to be equipped with knowledge of service
systems, and best practices implemented in the country and globally, and be
qualified to mould AMRUT and other national level policies according to local
needs, to gain the most benefit out of the mission objectives.
The current scenario unfortunately shows that poor professional capacity in
Indian ULBs leads to poor asset management, weak overall governance and
substandard urban planning and as a result, they end up outsourcing their City
Development Plans and Detailed Project Reports due to lack of in-house capacity.
To achieve enhanced service delivery and effective local governance, it is
imperative to build the capacity of all stakeholders involved in achieving the same.
The purpose of this research is to contribute towards improving the
implementation of AMRUT in three cities of the Indian state of Rajasthan, namely
Jaipur, Udaipur and Kota, by highlighting the gaps between the existing
professional capacity of Urban Local Body officials, and the capacity required of
these officials to effectively execute AMRUT objectives. Based on a qualitative
assessment of these gaps, this paper gives recommendations to improve individual
capacity of ULB officials, to ensure effective implementation of AMRUT in
Rajasthan.
Further, the study also probes into the summary appraisal of the mission in the
three AMRUT cities of Rajasthan, post completion of Financial Year 2016-17, the
second year of implementation of AMRUT.
Keywords- Individual Capacity Building, Urban Local Body, AMRUT, Rajasthan.
