"Citizens are willing to pay more for services by Government bodies and there is a dire need for local bodies to increase taxes on services," said Union Minister for Urban Development, M Venkaiah Naidu here on Monday.
Addressing a regional workshop on Smart Cities Mission, attended by officers and Mayors from 40 cities selected for smart city development in 12 States and Union Territories in South and West India and other stakeholders in the Mission, he said that a smart city plan was what citizens wanted for themselves, in the place they lived.
"There are so many municipalities where the taxes have not been revised for five, six and seven years. There are local bodies where the salaries bill of employees is much more than the revenues. These are areas that we need to focus on. The Central Government has substantially increased the resource base of States by deciding to transfer 42 per cent of divisible revenues over the next five years, as against 32 per cent in the past five years," he said.
The workshop is the second after the one held in New Delhi on September 3 and the third, for East and North-East Indian States will be held in Kolkata, later this month. "The broad contours of a smart city in our context is necessary, core infrastructure, sanitation, health and education facilities, a clean and sustainable environment, good public transport, good city governance and adoption of smart technologies to ensure a decent standard of life and catalyse economic growth," Mr. Naidu said.
"People can no longer rest easy, in the hope that Government will do everything that is needed to keep their cities clean.Their participation is definitely required," he said, adding that there was no reason for citizens with civic sense in cities that were not included in the first list of 100 Smart Cities to feel let down. "For them, there is AMRUT, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation," he said.
"Let me tell you an example. I hail from Nellore and so does P. Narayana, the Municipal Administration of Andhra Pradesh. But Nellore has not figured in the '100 Smart Cities' list. This should tell you that we are strictly going by parameters that have been laid down for urban development," the Union Minister said.
Others present on the dais included Union Minister of State for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya, AP's Municipal Administration Minister Mr. Narayana, Principal Secretaries for Municipal Administration and Urban Development M.G. Gopal (Telangana) and Karikal Valavan (Andhra Pradesh) and Additional Secretary , Smart Cities, Government of India, Sameer Sharma.
