Geneva, Palais des Nations - May 3-6, 2000
CITIES OF THE SOUTH:
SUSTAINABLE FOR WHOM?
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ESF/N-AERUS International Workshop Geneva, Palais des Nations - May 3-6, 2000
CITIES OF THE SOUTH:
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| WORKSHOP: HOME PAGE - INDEX OF PAPERS |
Amitabh Kundu
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Empowerment of local bodies to take up development responsibilities, tap the capital market through financial intermediaries, including the credit rating institutions for infrastructural investment has serious implications for the pattern of urban development and organisation of space within cities. The same is true for attempts to contract out basic services to private companies or engaging them as partners in slum improvement projects. In most cases, the local bodies, issuing bonds for resource mobilisation, have been forced to pledge their regular earnings from octroi, grants from the state etc. as a guarantee for debt servicing. This can severely restrict their functioning and come in the way of fulfilling their normal obligations. Subcontracting out of services may result in deterioration of quality and exclusion of marginal and peripheral areas. Further, the projects that are likely to be partially financed through a private agency would have to be commercially viable or be in localities in which the agency has specific interest. This would lead to a situation wherein the finances generated from the common people or given as a subsidy from the government is diverted or get escrowed as a security for projects benefiting better-off sections of population or elite colonies. The policy of liberating the local bodies from the regulatory and legislative controls of the government may, thus, oblige the former to come under direct control of corporate sector and financial institutions, resulting in dilution in their social commitments. Its impact in terms of segmentation of cities and denial of basic amenities to the poor could be serious.
N-AERUS: Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South
http://www.naerus.net