Housing Minister releases guidelines for ranking cities based on financial performance, beautification

Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri released on Wednesday draft guidelines for a new ranking system of cities based on financial performance and beautification.

''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,'' he said at the launch event.

Speaking about the idea behind the initiative, Puri said the thought came during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with the chief secretaries of states in June this year. ''The idea was to have an India ranking of the cities to foster a healthy competition among the municipal bodies in the matter of finances during this conference. Growing realisation among local bodies that if you have healthy finances, if your procedures are transparent then the land value goes up and that is the beauty of this venture which is being launched,'' he said.

City Finance Rankings 2022 aim 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.

According to Manoj Joshi, Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, it is also an effort to analyse and help the ULBs in identifying areas in their financial performance where they can make further improvements, to be able to deliver quality infrastructure and services, and hence a good quality of life to its citizens.

''The city finance rankings will evaluate and assess each participating ULB on 15 indicators and metrics across three key municipal finance criteria which, put together, will help in identifying the most financially sustainable and accountable cities,'' he said.

''Robust finances of ULBs are crucial for realising the vision of ULBs as a viable third tier of government and capitalising on the potential that cities represent for growth and development. Currently, municipal revenues in India are less than one per cent of the GDP, with high dependence on inter-governmental transfers, and own revenues accounting for less than half the total revenue of ULBs.

''This is reflected in the chronic deficits that ULBs run and, also among other things, in their inability to fund infrastructural demand or even meet the operation and maintenance (O&M) requirements,'' Joshi added.

Under the ranking, the cities will be ranked at the national level on the basis of their scores under any one of the following four population categories -- above 4 million, between 1-4 million, 100K to 1 million and less than 1,00,000. The top three cities in each population category will be recognised and rewarded at the national level as well as within each state and state cluster.

Over 4,500 cities or ULBs across all states and Union territories would be encouraged to participate in the City Finance Rankings 2022. The ''City Beauty Competition'' has been conceived and designed as a platform to evaluate, recognise and reward wards and public spaces in cities across five broad pillars -- aesthetics, accessibility, amenities, activities and ecology.

''It aims to encourage cities to conserve their rich traditional heritage, streamline their delivery mechanisms for efficient provisioning of basic infrastructure, develop community participation, imbibe the tenets of ecological conservation, and promote local economy,'' the secretary said.

The competition would felicitate most beautiful wards, both at the city and state levels, while cities would be awarded for their most beautiful public places, waterfronts, green spaces, tourist and heritage spaces and market and commercial places.

''Competing wards and cities would submit their entries on the city beauty portal which would be designed by the Ministry’s knowledge partners - Administrative Staff College of India. Entrants would need to establish that their ward or public place meets the requirement along a set of indicators. ''Entries would be judged by the jury. To facilitate the jury, a third party independent assessment would also be carried out. The decision of the jury on winning entries would be final,'' Joshi added. The cities have until January 15 to submit their comments before the guidelines are finalised and issued by January 30.