• Dr. Begum Sadeka Yasin

This paper attempts to study the post-independent urban policies in India and marginalization of the small and medium towns, which for all practical purposes have grown on their own and in their own way, special reference to Dhubri town of Assam. The post colonial urban policy was guided by the post colonial economic policy of India which formulated for the better accumulation of capital for the purpose of economic development. For much of the 20th century the Indian urban system was dominated by the four metropolitan cities: Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi, Chennai (Madras) and Kolkata (Calcutta). Each of the cities served as regional capital and acted as a central place for the vast rural hinterland (Shaw, A: EPW 1999) and is also the nerve centres of industry, trade and commerce. Containing the headquarters of all major industrial and financial houses, government institutions and professional services the urban areas represent a large proportion of the dynamic element in the spatial economy of the country. In 1950-51, the urban sector accounted for 27% of country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and by 1980-81 its contribution had increased to 47% (Shaw. A: EPW 1996). The need for the control and management of urban areas, in order to facilitate the unfettered accumulation of capital in the modern sector, was expressed in the country’s earliest Five Year Plans. However, it was only after the Third Plan that financial and legislative measures were taken to facilitate this process. Pre-occupied with the problem of reorganization of the economy after partition, India’s First and Second Plan has been rather low key about the urban (ibid). In terms of concrete policy statement and financial allocation “urbanization by and large does not appear as a problem of worthy attention” (Ramachandran: 1989: 329). In the Third Five Years Plan (1961-66) the government, for the first time formulated an urban planning and land policy. The policy was shaped by its ‘broad objective’ which was the need to secure ‘balanced development’ between large, medium-sized and small industries between rural and urban areas.

Urbanization, Five Years Plan, Small and Medium Towns, Experimentation, Marginalization, Housing and Development Corporation (HUDCO), Integrated Development of Small and Towns (IDSMT).

"POLICY EXPERIMENTATION AND MARGINALIZATION OF SMALL TOWNS IN INDIA: DHUBRI TOWN OF ASSAM ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.204-207, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907F26.pdf

"POLICY EXPERIMENTATION AND MARGINALIZATION OF SMALL TOWNS IN INDIA: DHUBRI TOWN OF ASSAM ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp204-207, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907F26.pdf