Basic services approach to urban development: Indian experience☆
In India a number of earlier efforts were made to improve basic services in urban areas, with the active involvem e n t of the p e o p l e and n o n governmental organizations (NGOs). But these were more in the nature of pilot projects. The Urban Basic Services (UBS) programme launched during 1985-90 in India, covering a number of small and medium towns in various parts of the country, is a unique experiment. Its uniqueness stems not only from its wider scale of operation but also from its basic themes of community participation, convergence and capacity building. The active involvement of the NGOs and its institutional support are other unique features of the programme. This paper traces the genesis of the basic services approach, the role of international bodies like UNICEF and the World Bank and analyses the UBS programme as it is being implemented in India.
Scope of Intervention
As recently as 1993, two authors were lamenting the state of urban management. Stren noted that: ‘Since the mid-1980s, urban management as an integrating concept has been strangely bereft of substantive content and definition … The central core of meaning attached to the concept has been surprisingly elusive’.1 Later, ‘while comparative and conceptual work has taken place within the (UN Habitat — Urban Management) Programme sectors, the overall concept of urban management has not been addressed head on’.2 Similarly, Davey suggested that ‘the evolution of urban management is littered with attempts to develop an effective methodology for strategic planning and management at the metropolitan and municipal levels. The literature has uncovered few examples of good practice’.3 This chapter seeks to identify the parameters of urban management. It therefore considers three topics: 
 
 
OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS 
 
 
INFRASTRUCTURE 
 
 
INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING.
Natural Radioactivity of Intrusive-Metamorphic and Sedimentary Rocks of the Balkan Mountain Range (Serbia, Stara Planina)
Stara Planina (also known as the Balkan mountain range) is known for numerous occurrences and deposits of uranium and associated radionuclides. It is also famous for its geodiversity. The geologic framework is highly complex. The mountain is situated between the latitudes of 43° and 44° N and the longitudes from 22°16′ to 23°00′ E. Uranium exploration and radioactivity testing on Stara Planina began back in 1948. Uranium has also been mined in the zone of Kalna, within the Janja granite intrusive. The naturally radioactive geologic units of Stara Planina are presented in detail in this paper. The main sources of radioactivity on Stara Planina can be classified as: 1. Granitic endogenous—syngenetic–epigenetic deposits and occurrences; 2. Metamorphogenic—syngenetic; and 3. Sedimentary, including occurrences of uranium deposition and fluctuation caused by water in different types of sedimentary rocks formed in a continental setting, which could be classified under epigenetic types. The area of Stara Planina with increased radioactivity (higher than 200 cps), measured by airborne gamma spectrometry, is about 380 square kilometers. The highest values of measured radioactivity and uranium grade were obtained from a sample taken from the Mezdreja uranium mine tailing dump, where 226Ra measures 2600 ± 100 Bq/kg and the uranium grade is from 76.54 to 77.65 ppm U. The highest uranium (and lead) concentration, among all samples, is measured in graphitic schist with high concentrations of organic (graphitic) material from the Inovska Series—99.47 ppm U and 107.69 ppm Pb. Thorium related radioactivity is the highest in granite samples from the Janja granite in the vicinity of the Mezdreja granite mine and the Gabrovnica granite mine tailing dump, and it is the same—250 ± 10 Bq/kg for 232Th, while the thorium grade varies from 30.82 to 60.27 ppm Th. In gray siltstones with a small amount of organic material, the highest radioactivity is related to potassium—2080 ± 90 Bq/kg for 40K.