An overview of the AMRUT scheme

Sub: Schemes

Sec: Infra

Tags: AMRUT scheme

What is the AMRUT scheme?

The AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) scheme was a flagship programme launched by the NDA-1 government in June 2015, with its 2.0 version launched on October 1, 2021.
AMRUT 2.0 was launched in October 2021 for a period of 5 years, i.e., Financial Year 2021-22 to 2025-26.
AMRUT 2.0 was aimed at making cities ‘water secure’ and providing functional water tap connections to all households in all statutory towns.
Ambitious targets were set up such as providing 100% sewage management in 500 AMRUT cities.
It is an extension of the AMRUT mission, which was launched in June 2015 and aims to provide every household with access to a tap with a guaranteed supply of water and a sewer connection.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is the nodal ministry for the scheme.
The purpose of the AMRUT mission was to

(i) ensure that every household has access to a tap with assured supply of water and a sewerage connection
(ii) increase the value of cities by developing greenery and well-maintained open spaces such as parks and
(iii) reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorised transport.
The total outlay for AMRUT was ₹50,000 crore for five years from FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-20.

Data on housing patterns:

Around 36% of India’s population is living in cities and by 2047 it will be more than 50%.
The World Bank estimates that around $840 billion is required to fund the bare minimum urban infrastructure over the next 15 years.

What is the reality of AMRUT schemes?

It is estimated that about 2,00,000 people die every year due to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.
In 2016, the disease burden due to unsafe water and sanitation per person was 40 times higher in India than in China.
Around 21 major cities are going to run out of ground water. In a NITI Aayog report it was stated that 40% of India’s population will have no access to drinking water by 2030.
A National Clean Air Programme was launched by the central government in 2019, as AMRUT 2.0 focused only on water and sewerage and because the air quality concerns of AMRUT 1.0 were far from addressed.

Challenges in the scheme:

The basic fundamental of the scheme was erroneously constructed.
Instead of a holistic approach, it took on a project-oriented attitude.
AMRUT was made for cities with no participation from the cities.
In the governance architecture, the apex committee is headed by the secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) and all the members are non-elected.
The State level high powered committee is headed by the chief secretary with a private nexus of consultants and professionals.
Peoples’ representatives are completely missing, in violation of the 74th constitutional amendment.

About National Clean Air Programme(NCAP):

It was launched by the MoEFCC in January 2019 as a long-term, time-bound, national-level strategy that features:
- Making determined efforts to deal with the air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner.
- Achieving 20% to 30% reduction target in Particulate Matter concentrations by 2024 where 2017 is kept as the base year for the comparison of concentration.
Identification of 122 non-attainment cities (presently 131 non-attainment cities) across the country based on the 2014-2018 Air Quality data.
Non- Attainment Cities are the cities which do not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.