By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The ministry of housing and urban affairs on Wednesday launched two initiatives to rank cities based on their financial performance and beautification. One of them is ‘City Finance Rankings 2022’, which aims to evaluate, recognise and reward urban local bodies (ULBs) on the basis of their strength across three financial parameters resource mobilisation, expenditure performance and fiscal governance systems. The second mechanism, ‘City Beauty Competition’, is to encourage and recognise the transformational efforts made by cities and wards in India to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces.
“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,” Housing and Urban Affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri said at the launch. He also released the guidelines for the ranking systems.
The idea of the initiative, Puri said, came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “When he (PM) met the chief secretaries of all the states in June, he outlined a vision of a pan-India ranking of the cities to foster a healthy competition among the municipal bodies in the matter of finances… There is realisation among local bodies that if you have healthy finances, transparent procedures, then the land value goes up. That is the beauty of this venture,” Puri said.
For finance ranking, the ULBs will be evaluated on 15 indicators across parameters of resource mobilization, expenditure performance and fiscal governance. Under the ‘City Beauty Competition’, wards and public places would be judged on the basis of accessibility, amenities, aesthetics and ecology. “It is hoped that healthy competition amongst wards and cities would encourage urban local bodies to improve their infrastructure, and make the urban spaces beautiful, sustainable and inclusive,” said the ministry.
NEW DELHI: The ministry of housing and urban affairs on Wednesday launched two initiatives to rank cities based on their financial performance and beautification. One of them is ‘City Finance Rankings 2022’, which aims to evaluate, recognise and reward urban local bodies (ULBs) on the basis of their strength across three financial parameters resource mobilisation, expenditure performance and fiscal governance systems. The second mechanism, ‘City Beauty Competition’, is to encourage and recognise the transformational efforts made by cities and wards in India to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces.
“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,” Housing and Urban Affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri said at the launch. He also released the guidelines for the ranking systems.
The idea of the initiative, Puri said, came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “When he (PM) met the chief secretaries of all the states in June, he outlined a vision of a pan-India ranking of the cities to foster a healthy competition among the municipal bodies in the matter of finances… There is realisation among local bodies that if you have healthy finances, transparent procedures, then the land value goes up. That is the beauty of this venture,” Puri said.
For finance ranking, the ULBs will be evaluated on 15 indicators across parameters of resource mobilization, expenditure performance and fiscal governance. Under the ‘City Beauty Competition’, wards and public places would be judged on the basis of accessibility, amenities, aesthetics and ecology. “It is hoped that healthy competition amongst wards and cities would encourage urban local bodies to improve their infrastructure, and make the urban spaces beautiful, sustainable and inclusive,” said the ministry.
