The Union government on Wednesday launched guidelines for a new finance-based ranking of cities, which would evaluate urban units on 15 key parameters, including resource mobilisation, expenditure performance and fiscal governance. A separate ranking will also evaluate cities on beautification.
The rankings are aimed at motivating city and State officials to implement municipal financial reforms.
“India has embarked on the most ambitious plan for urban rejuvenation undertaken anywhere in the world. A healthy sense of competition gives the best performing cities a sense of pride,” Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Hardeep Singh Puri said, launching the guidelines.
Cities will be ranked at the national level on the basis of their scores under any one of the following four population categories — above four million, between 1-4 million, between 100,000 to 1 million, and less than 100,000.
The top three cities in each population category will be recognised and rewarded at the national level as well as within each State or State cluster.
The effort is also aimed at identifying areas in the financial performance of the cities where they can make further improvements. This will enable them to deliver quality infrastructure and services, and hence a good quality of life to citizens, Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, said.
The participating urban bodies shall be invited to submit the required data or documents through the website www.cityfinance.in.
All cities and urban local bodies, which are more than 4,500 in number, would be encouraged to participate in the City Finance Rankings 2022.
Mr. Puri said that the thought had come from Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he met Chief Secretaries of all the States in June this year and outlined the vision of a pan-India ranking of the cities to foster healthy competition among municipal bodies.
A ‘City Beauty Competition’ initiative was also launched. The Minister said that this was to encourage and recognise the transformational efforts made by cities and wards in India towards creating beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces.
In this ranking, wards and public places in cities will be judged against the five broad pillars of accessibility, amenities, activities, aesthetics, and ecology.
The city beauty competition would felicitate the most beautiful wards and most beautiful public places at the city-level. While selected wards would be felicitated at the city and State levels, at the city level, the most beautiful public places in cities, such as waterfronts, green spaces, tourist and heritage spaces, and market and commercial places, would be awarded first at the State and then shortlisted for awards at the national level.
