The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly recently passed a resolution calling for the division of Uttar Pradesh [U.P] into four States. But the procedure for formation of new States laid down in Article 3 of the Constitution provides that a State has no say over the formation of new States beyond communicating its views to Parliament. Article 3 assigns to Parliament the power to enact legislation for the formation of new States. Parliament may create new States in a number of ways, namely by (i) separating territory from any State, (ii) uniting two or more States, (iii) uniting parts of States and (iv) uniting any territory to a part of any State. Parliament’s power under Article 3 extends to increasing or diminishing the area of any State and altering the boundaries or name of any State. Two checks constrain Parliament’s power to enact legislation for the formation of new States. Firstly, a bill calling for formation of new States may be introduced in either House of Parliament only on the recommendation of the President. Secondly, such a bill must be referred by the President to the concerned State Legislature for expressing its views to Parliament if it contains provisions which affect the areas, boundaries or name of that State. As can be seen, the only role that the U.P. State Legislature [the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council] will play in any future formation of new States is when the President calls for its views to be placed before Parliament. Parliament will not be bound by these views in the process of enacting legislation for the formation of new States.
On November 28, 2012, the Comptroller and Auditor General submitted its report on the implementation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). According to the report most of the projects initiated under JNNURM have not been completed. For instance with respect to urban infrastructure projects, only 231 projects out of the 1298 sanctioned projects have been completed. Similarly, with respect to housing projects, only 22 of the 1517 projects have been completed. Some of the other key recommendations of the report are:
The need and objectives of JNNURM According to the 2011 census India’s urban population has increased from 286 million in 2001 to 377 million in 2011 . With the increase in urban population, there is a requirement to improve the urban infrastructure and improve the service delivery mechanisms. With these specific objectives in mind, the central government launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission 2005-2006. The aim of the Mission is to encourage reforms and fast track planned development of identified cities (such as cities with a population of more than 1 million as per the 2001 census). JNNURM has two main components namely : (i) Urban Infrastructure and Governance and (ii) Urban Infrastructure Development for Small and Medium Towns. The duration of JNNURM was from 2005-06 to 2011-12. However, as the projects have not been completed the Government has extended its duration until March 2014. Funds for JNNURM The funds for JNNURM are provided through the Additional Central Assistance. This implies that the funds are provided as grants to the states directly from the centre. In the 2012 Union Budget, the central government has allocated Rs 12,522 crore for JNNURM. This represents around 10 % of the total central assistance through the different schemes to states and union territories in 2012-13. As on June 30 2012, 554 projects at a total cost of Rs 62,253 crore have been sanctioned under the Urban Infrastructure and Governance sub-mission of JNNURM. The table below shows the status of the sanctioned JNNURM projects in the different states. State wise status of the projects under JNNURM (as on August 6, 2012)
| Name of State | Total Allocation (Rs Lakh) | Number of sanctioned projects | Completed Projects |
| Andhra Pradesh | 2,11,845 | 52 | 18 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 10,740 | 3 | NA |
| Assam | 27,320 | 2 | NA |
| Bihar | 59,241 | 8 | NA |
| Chandigarh | 27,087 | 3 | NA |
| Chattisgarh | 24,803 | 1 | NA |
| Delhi | 2,82,318 | 23 | 4 |
| Goa | 12,094 | 2 | NA |
| Gujarat | 2,57,881 | 72 | 40 |
| Haryana | 32,332 | 4 | NA |
| Himachal Pradesh | 13,066 | 5 | NA |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 48,836 | 5 | NA |
| Jharkhand | 94,120 | 5 | NA |
| Karnataka | 1,52,459 | 47 | 22 |
| Kerala | 67,476 | 11 | NA |
| Madhya Pradesh | 1,32,850 | 23 | 7 |
| Maharashtra | 5,50,555 | 80 | 21 |
| Manipur | 15,287 | 3 | NA |
| Meghalaya | 15,668 | 2 | NA |
| Mizoram | 14,822 | 4 | NA |
| Nagaland | 11,628 | 3 | NA |
| Orissa | 32,235 | 5 | NA |
| Punjab | 70,775 | 6 | 1 |
| Puducherry | 20,680 | 2 | NA |
| Rajasthan | 74,869 | 13 | 2 |
| Sikkim | 10,613 | 2 | NA |
| Tamil Nadu | 2,25,066 | 48 | 12 |
| Tripura | 14,018 | 2 | NA |
| Uttar Pradesh | 2,76,941 | 33 | 4 |
| Uttarakhand | 40,534 | 14 | NA |
| West Bengal | 3,21,840 | 69 | 15 |
Source: Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission; PRS.
