With the Ministry of
Urban Development asking the State Governments to nominate by July 31st
the cities and towns for inclusion under Smart Cities Mission, the Stage-1 of
‘City Challenge’ competition got underway.
As per the
Operational Guidelines for Smart Cities Mission, released by the Prime Minister
Shri Narendra Modi on June 25, 2015, States have to nominate the assigned
number of cities and towns from each State based on four broad criteria and a
total of 13 Sub-criteria.
The four
broad criteria being: Existing Service Levels in city/town (25 marks out of the
total of 100 marks), Institutional Systems and capacities(15 marks),
Self-financing (30) and Past track record and reforms(30 marks). Every State
Government has to evaluate all cities/towns in that state
based on these criteria and nominate the top performers as per the number
assigned to each State. For instance, Uttar Pradesh is entitled to nominate 13
cities/towns for inclusion in Smart Cities Mission and the State Government has
to suggest 13 top scoring cities/towns after evaluation of all urban local
bodies in the State as per the stipulated criteria.
As per the
weightages given per each criterion in the Mission Guidelines, present status
of e-governance and revenue mobilization and financial strength of urban local
bodies dominate the Stage-1 evaluation criteria accounting for 60 of the total
100 marks. 8 of the total 13 Sub-criteria are related to e-governance and
financial strength including revenue mobilization of urban local bodies.
Details of
this dominant criteria being:
1.Operational
Online Grievance Redressal System -5 marks
2.
Publication of at least first monthly e-newsletter -5 marks
3.Online
display of municipal budget expenditure information for the last two financial
years -5 marks.
4.Increase
in collection of internally generated revenues during the last three years -10
marks
5.Payment
of salaries by urban local body up to last month -5 marks
6.Percentage
contribution of internal revenues of urban local body like tax revenue, user
charges, rents to fund the budget -10 points
7.Extent
of establishment and maintenance costs of water supply met through user charges
during 2014-15 -10 marks
8.Percentage
of internal revenues used to fund capital expenditure during 2014-15 -10 marks.
The other
criteria to be used for evaluation of smart city aspirants in the Stage-1 of
City Challenge Competition being: % of increase over Census 2011 in providing
household toilets (10 marks), Imposing penalties for delay in service
delivery(5), Audit of accounts up to 2012-13(5), Progress in respect of six ULB
level reforms(10) and Percentage of JNNURM projects implemented(10 marks).
100 smart
city nominations received from all the States and Union Territories will be put
through State-2 of the competition based on an elaborate criteria before funds
are released to the top 20 cities and towns during the current financial year.
AAR
July 3, 2015