New Delhi, June 25, 2015: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today launched three mega urban schemes viz., Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Housing for All in urban area setting in motion the process of urban transformation to enable better living and drive economic growth. Stressing on the need for people centric urban planning and development, he said that for the first time in the county such an effort has been launched.
Defining Smart City as one which is one or two steps ahead of the aspirations of the people, Prime Minster said smart city aspirants are being selected through a process of competition and with effective citizen participation ending the ‘top down’ approach and leading to ‘people centric’ urban development. He further said that the new schemes were formulated after extensive consultations with all the stakeholders, the biggest of its kind in the country so far. Shri Modi noted that the management of urbanization in the country offered the biggest challenge and opportunity for the people and elected municipal leadership to contribute to transforming urban India.
Stating that public representatives are remembered for the good work they did during their tenures, the Prime Minister urged Mayors and Municipal Chairpersons attending the launch to contribute for the good of the people. He reminded them that the 500 of them assembled have the responsibility of ensuring better quality of life for 40% of the country’s population that either live in urban areas or dependent on them for livelihood. He urged them to help migrants to urban areas meet their aspirations.
Stating that urbanization should be viewed as an opportunity, Prime Minster noted that had this been recognized about 30 years ago, situation would have been far better today. He said that with clear vision and effective planning, all possible hurdles could be overcome and even resource mobilization would not be an issue.
The Prime Minister observed that a house would be a major turning point in the lives of the poor as it would motivate them towards higher goals like earning and saving more for further bettering their living standards. He said that the Government is committed to enable 2 cr urban poor own their houses by the year 2022, the 75 year of Independence of the Country.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said that the Government was keen to promote inclusive development and the new schemes are pro-poor in their orientation. Elaborating on this Shri Naidu said that Smart Cities, AMRUT and Housing Mission would help the urban poor through increased access to water supply, sewer connections, public transportation, housing, improved urban governance ensuring transparency and accountability and better delivery of services, enhanced employment opportunities etc.
Shri Naidu said that several initiatives launched at the behest of the Prime Minister like Skill India, Make in India, Digital India, Clean India, PM’s Jan Dhan Yojana, PAHAL, Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao, National Institute for Transformation of India (NITI Ayog) etc were all aimed at transforming the country to enable it realise its full potential.
Shri Venkaiah Naidu noted that the new urban schemes have been so designed and formulated so as to completely do away with any subjectivity or discretion in selection of cities and in allocation of funds and States are being given full liberty and flexibility in formulation, appraisal and approval of projects. He said that urban reforms, smart leadership and smart people are key to the success of new missions.
In his welcome address, Minister of State for Urban Development and HUPA Shri Babul Supriyo said that the triad of Centre, States and Urban Local Bodies are like the upper, middle and lower berths of a railway compartment, together moving on the same track of development of the country.
Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Haryana, Deputy Chief Minister of J&K, Ministers from 20 other States, Mayors, Municipal Chairpersons and Commissioners from 500 cities and towns, senior officials from Central and State governments, diplomats from 15 countries, representatives of stakeholder organisations and multilateral bodies have attended the launch.
Discussions over implementations issues relating to the three new missions and Swachh Bharat Mission would continue over the next two days.
PM'S REMARKS AT THE LAUNCH OF AMRUT, SMART CITIES MISSION AND HOUSING FOR ALL (URBAN)
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today said that for the first time in the country, the people, and the urban leadership would play the pivotal role in deciding the future course of their cities. He was speaking at the launch of three major urban development initiatives: AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation); Smart Cities Mission; and Housing for All (Urban), at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
The Prime Minister explained that for the first time in India, a challenge was being floated, in which the citizens of urban India could contribute in the formulation of development visions of their cities. Those cities which were able to competitively meet the required parameters would be developed as smart cities. Hence, the Prime Minister said, this competitive mechanism would end the top-down approach, and lead to people-centric urban development.
The Prime Minister said these urban development schemes were not prepared by the Government alone, but involved perhaps the biggest consultation exercise ever taken by the Union Government, involving all stakeholders and examining global best practices. The Prime Minister gave a simple vision of a smart city, as one which was a step or two ahead of people's aspirations. Technology, transportation, energy efficiency, walk-to-work, cycling etc were some elements mentioned by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister said the Government is sensitive to consumer protection, and towards ending undue harassment, especially with regard to housing. He said one Bill towards this end has already been introduced in Parliament.
Stating that public representatives and leaders are remembered by the good work they did in their terms, the Prime Minister urged urban leaders to contribute to doing something for the good of the people. He said the people assembled in Vigyan Bhawan today, had on them the collective responsibility for better quality of life for 40 percent of India's population that either lived in cities, or were dependent on cities for their livelihood. He said the aspirations of migrants from rural areas, and slum dwellers, have to be balanced with the changing global environment. He said ensuring a good life for them is our responsibility. In this context, this 2-day workshop presented a good opportunity to work out strategies for the future.
Recalling the Emergency, which was imposed 40 years ago on this day, the Prime Minister said the dreams and aspirations that inspired people to struggle against the emergency, should be a beacon for this gathering. He said all schemes for urban development should move forward based on people's participation.
The Prime Minister said that urbanization should be viewed as an opportunity, and urban centres should be viewed as growth engines. He said if this had been done 25-30 years ago, it would have led to good results today, but better late than never. He said schemes which had a clear vision and were people-centric, were the need of the hour. He called for replication of best practices from across the country. In particular, the Prime Minister mentioned Hyderabad's tax collection system, Karnataka's efforts for solid waste management, and Chhattisgarh's work to eliminate open defecation.
Mentioning the challenge of rising population, he said all possible avenues should be explored to find the resources for urban development.
The Prime Minister said a House was a turning point in the lives of poor, which led towards a better life. He said the Government's effort was to not just provide a house, but to provide the right environment to live life to the fullest.
Citing the existing housing shortage of 2 crore units, the Prime Minister said that India was completing 75 years of independence in 2022, and by then, it was our responsibility to provide a house for everyone.
The Prime Minister said today there is a lack of holistic vision about urban planning, and expansion is driven not by the administrators of a city, but by property developers. Through AMRUT, the aim of the Government is to give cities themselves the chance to plan their future growth.
The Prime Minister appreciated people for their interest and work in the Swachh Bharat initiative, as well as the positive role played by media in generating awareness.
The Prime Minister said urban and rural development in our country should be complimentary. One way of doing this was to ensure waste water management in urban areas, so that the treated water could be returned to rural areas for irrigation. Similarly solid waste management could generate compost which could act as organic fertiliser for the surrounding rural areas.
The Prime Minister released logos, and taglines for AMRUT and Smart Cities Mission; and guidelines for AMRUT, Smart Cities Mission and Housing for All (Urban). The Prime Minister also visited an exhibition on best practices in urban development.
The Minister for Urban Development Shri Venkaiah Naidu, and the Minister of State for Urban Development Shri Babul Supriyo, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Haryana Shri Manohar Lal Khattar, and the Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Shri Nirmal Kumar Singh were present on the occasion.
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF POTENTIAL SMART CITIES ANNOUNCED -ONLY CAPABLE CITIES TO BE CHOSEN THROUGH TWO STAGE COMPETITION
Given the challenges involved in developing 100 smart cities, only the capable cities will be chosen under the Smart Cities Mission through a two-stage competition. This was indicated in the Operation Guidelines for Smart Cities Mission released by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi while launching the Mission here today. The selection criteria to be used in both the stages of competition was elaborated in the Guidelines.
In the Stage-1 of City Challenge Competition, each State and Union Territory will score all their cities based on a set of criteria and nominate the top scorers as per the indicated number of potential smart cities for participation in the Stage-2 of competition. The evaluation criteria for Stage-1 of competition within the State/UT is as below:
1.Existing Service Levels (25 points) : This includes Increase in service levels over Census 2011, An operational Online Grievance Redressal System, Publication of at least first monthly e-newsletter and online publication of municipal budget expenditure details for the last two financial years on website.
2.Institutional Systems and Capacities (15 points): This covers imposition of penalties for delays in service delivery and improvement in internal resource generation over the last three years;
3.Self-financing (30 points): This would be reflected in payment of salaries by urban local bodies up to last month, Auditing of accounts up to FY 2012-13, Contribution of internal revenues to the Budget for 2014-15 and Percentage of establishment and maintenance cost of water supply met through user charges during 2014-15.
4.Past track record (30 points) : Percentage of JNNURM projects completed which were sanctioned till 2012, Percentage of City level reforms achieved under JNNURM and extent of capital expenditure met from internal resources.
The 100 potential smart cities nominated by all the States and UTs based on Stage-1 criteria will prepare Smart City Plans which will be rigorously evaluated in the Stage-2 of the competition for prioritizing cities for financing. In the first round of this stage, 20 top scorers will be chosen for financing during this financial year. The remaining would be asked to make up the deficiencies identified by the Apex Committee in the Ministry of Urban Development for participation in the next two rounds of competition. 40 cities each will be selected for financing during the next rounds of competition.
Stage-2 criteria for evaluation of Smart City Plans is as below:
CITY LEVEL EVALUATION(30 points)
1.Credibility of implementation : This encompasses improvement in operational efficiency over the last three years as reflected in average time taken to give building plan approvals, increase in property tax assessment and collection, collection of user charges for water, improvement in power supply, easing of traffic congestion, online accessing of statutory documents through adoption of IT etc.
2.City Vision and Strategy : As reflected in the degree of correlation with the needs and aspirations of the residents, use of ICT to improve public service delivery, impact on core economic activity and inclusiveness.
PROPOSAL LEVEL EVALUATION (70 points)
3.Impact of proposal : To what extent the proposal is inclusive in terms of benefits to the poor and disadvantaged, Extent of employment generation, Articulation of quantifiable outcomes based on citizen consultations, Impact on environment etc.
4.Cost effectiveness of Smart City Plan : Application of smart solutions for doing more with less of resources, Alternatives considered to enhance cost effectiveness of the proposal, firming up of resources required from various sources, Provision for Operation & Maintenance Costs, IT interventions to improve public service delivery.
5.Innovation and Scalability : Extent of adoption of best practices in consultation with citizens, Applicability of project to the entire city, Adoption of smart solutions and Pan-city developments.
6.Processes followed : Extent of citizen consultations, vulnerable sections like the differently abled, children, elderly etc., ward committees and area sabhas and important citizen groups, Extent of use of social media and mobile governance during citizen consultations and Accommodation of contrary voices in the strategy and planning.
Date:
Thursday, June 25, 2015