A panel comprising of experts from the Indian Institute of Human Settlements conducted a study and submitted a report last week which consisted of suggestions for post-COVID recovery which included focusing on urban jobs and investing more in cities.
The study commissioned by the Fifteenth Finance Commission also suggested that the center should consider increasing fund allocation to strengthen urban local bodies since the cities are worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in fund allocation will enable them to meet pandemic like situations and facilitate their faster recovery.
The proportion of grants from the divisible pool for local bodies should be tweaked to 65:35 in 2024-25 from 67.5:32.5 in 2020-21.
The report also suggested establishing a “Dedicated Urban Governance and Financial Resilience Fund” which will help the cities recover from COVID-19`s impact, and have a 10-year plan to take urban investments to over 10,000 places by 2031.
The worst affected cities due to the COVID-19 pandemic are Pune, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, and Bengaluru. The COVID-19 is draining the financial resources of these cities considerably.
The government needs to be mindful while considering the post-COVID-19 planning even though the cities offer smart reinvestments that can kick start economies. For immediate post-COVID recovery to happen, safety nets for food, tenure/housing, decent work, and basic services have to be put in place.
The report by the Fifteenth Finance Commission was put in place to assess the potential of greenfield towns and cities in assisting in financial recovery and to understand the ways to enable the process of urbanization to enable the post-COVID economic recovery.
According to the Fifteenth Finance Commission chairman Mr. N K Singh, a presentation was made to the commission and Urban Development Ministry`s inputs were also taken.
The recommendations have to be considered by also taking into the fact that the resources are scarce and the sum of money required is very significant.
The report also suggested setting up a 2,000 crore rupees municipal cadre development grant fund to strengthen municipal cadre and a dedicated 1,000 crore rupees economic and financial data systems improvement grant fund for monitoring and reporting economic activities in cities by the third-party institutions.
