The Kerala Cabinet on December 20 (Wednesday) decided to constitute the Kerala Urban Policy Commission to formulate a comprehensive urban policy to guide Kerala’s development activities for the next 25 years.
The State Budget had proposed the setting up of the commission as the direction of urbanisation needed to be determined considering the unique socio-economic conditions of Kerala.
According to Census 2011, the urban population in Kerala was 48.50%. The National Population Commission estimates that 92.8% of Kerala will become an urbanised State by 2035.
M. Satish Kumar, a Senior Associate Professor at Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom, will be the chairman of the commission. Kochi Mayor M. Anil Kumar and E .Narayanan, urban planning expert and former faculty at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, have been chosen as the co-chairpersons. The Local Self-Government department secretary will be the member secretary of the commission. The expert committee also includes experts from the field of urban planning.
Urban policy cell
The commission will have a tenure of one year. The Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA)‘s urban studies centre will function as the commission secretariat. An urban policy cell will be formed for this purpose. The work of the commission will be helpful in developing a global perspective on urbanisation for Kerala. As a State much affected by climate change and as a region undergoing a highly complex urbanisation process, this will help to understand various aspects of urbanisation.
Provisions for financial support for urban policy formulation will be through Rebuild Kerala, KfW Development Bank, the Kerala Solid Waste Management Project and the AMRUT project. Grants earmarked for this purpose by such agencies are intended to be used for the functioning of the commission in a manner that does not create any new financial burden.
The Central Government had published the draft urban policy framework in 2018. Since urban development is a State subject, this report recommended that each State should publish a separate urban policy. With the formation of the Urban Commission, Kerala is expected to become the first State to formulate its own urban policy.
