To be eligible for Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) assistance, “release of funds will be based on reforms by civic bodies.”

The PMC has so far been successful in completing four of the 16 reforms that it’s committed to carry out. As per the terms of reference of JNNIURM there are 23 reforms of which PMC has to carry out 16 - six being mandatory and 10 optional - while the state government has to carry out seven reforms.

Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi though said there was no reason to worry. “Our reform process is already in place and is well ahead of other corporations. We are confident of achieving the reforms within the set deadline,” he said.

According to Praveen Ashtikar, special officer coordinating reforms process under JNNURM, out of the six mandatory reforms, PMC has to complete five by March 31. Of this, it has completed only one reform process - of internal earmarking of funds for services to urban poor.

“Of the remaining five, shifting to accrual based double entry accounting has begun and will be in place during the start of next financial year,” PMC chief account officer Ambrish Galinde said.

Meanwhile there is progress on property tax coverage front. PMC has already achieved 85 per cent compliance and is set to touch 90 per cent by March end. “The number of collection centres for property tax has been increased along with the provision of online payment and cheque drop facility at selected ATM centres,” he said.

The process to set up e-governance has been speeded up with the appointment of a committee of IT experts like Vijay Bhatkar and Deepak Shikarpur.

For the other reforms, the PMC had set a deadline of 2009-10 for achieving 100 per cent cost recovery of operation and maintenance for water supply, but has already achieved this benchmark. It has also initiated steps for achieving 100 per cent cost recovery for solid waste management by proposing door-to-door garbage collection at a monthly charge of Rs 10 per month for each property.

Out of the 10 optional reforms, the PMC has completed the one of making rain water harvesting mandatory through revision of building bye laws and introduction of computerised process of registration of land and property along with the streamlining of the approval process of building proposals through revision of building bye-laws.

The PMC has initiated the administrative reforms by delegating powers to the zonal commissioners and ward officers. The deadline for the administrative as well as structural reforms is 2008-09.