New Delhi: In a push towards improving municipal governance in cities, the Modi government is planning to launch the ‘Aspirational Urban Local Bodies (ULBs)’ initiative, modelled on the aspirational districts and blocks programme, mainly for tier 2 and tier 3 cities, ThePrint has learnt.
The ministry of housing and urban affairs, it is learnt, is in the process of preparing a proposal for the initiative after carrying out a pilot project in seven urban local bodies in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
“The pilot project was done just to know about the ease of getting information about the key parameters based on which we will select the ULBs. We are in the process of preparing the proposal for the Aspirational ULB initiative. While we have identified the key parameters for the selection of ULBs, these are yet to be finalised. The parameters for selection and key performance indicators for regular assessment of the selected ULBs will be finalised soon,” a senior ministry official told ThePrint.
Modelled on the Centre’s existing Aspirational Blocks Programme and Aspirational Districts Programme, the Aspirational ULBs initiative is aimed at helping ULBs improve their physical and social infrastructure, mainly through convergence of various government schemes.
While the Aspirational Blocks Programme was launched in 2023 to transform 500 rural blocks, the Aspirational Districts Programme was started in 2018 in 112 of the most underdeveloped districts in India.
In the Aspirational ULBs initiative, ministry officials said, population of the city will be a key criteria. The aim is to target civic agencies in tier 2 and tier 3 cities that don’t have adequate infrastructure in place. But the ministry is also planning to include some promising ULBs which have taken initiatives to improve civic governance, to help them further upgrade infrastructure and services.
“The cities will be grouped in different categories based on their population,” the senior ministry official said.
Elaborating on the selection criteria, the official explained, “For the selection of ULBs under the initiative, we are planning to look at parameters such as sewer network, status of road infrastructure, sanitation levels, water supply status, streetlight coverage and number of playgrounds, among other basic infrastructure. One important parameter would be digital initiatives taken by the ULBs to ensure ease of living of its citizens.”
The ministry is also working on a set of around 50 key performance indicators on which ULBs will be assessed at regular intervals.
“The idea is to have healthy competition between ULBs to encourage them to improve their services and performance. The plan is to select 200 ULBs for the initiative, though the number is yet to be finalised. There will be awards for ULBs which perform well on different parameters,” the official added.
ThePrint has reached out to the ministry via email for a comment and a response is awaited.
The Aspirational ULBs initiative is in line with the Centre’s plan to strengthen municipal governance in cities. In December 2022, the ministry had launched the ‘City Finance Ranking 2022’ initiative to evaluate and reward civic agencies based on key financial parameters.
“City Finance Ranking 2022 aims to evaluate, recognise and reward ULBs on the basis of their strength across three financial parameters — resource mobilisation, expenditure performance and fiscal governance systems,” Hardeep Singh Puri, then housing and urban affairs minister, had said at the time of the launch of the initiative.
“The cities will be ranked 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 100,000. The top 3 cities in each population category will be recognised and rewarded at the national level as well as within each state/state cluster,” the ministry had stated in March last year.
According to sources, the ministry is in the process of assessing the performance of the cities for finance ranking.
Focus on tier 2 and tier 3 cities
Under the Aspirational ULBs initiative, ministry officials said, the focus will be on tier 2 and tier 3 cities, as basic infrastructure is missing in most of these cities.
Last year, the Modi government had announced the Rs 10,000-crore Urban Infrastructure Development Fund for tier 2 cities (with one lakh to less than 10 lakh population) and tier 3 cities (50,000 to one lakh population).
Under the scheme, state governments and Union territories can submit proposals for infrastructure projects in cities worth Rs 5 crore to Rs 100 crore. Given as a loan to states, the fund can be used for 11 types of infrastructure projects, including setting up of water supply network, sewerage network, solid waste management plant, construction of underpasses and bridges and comprehensive area development projects. The National Housing Bank is the nodal agency for the implementation of the scheme.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Rs 10,000 cr infra fund rolled out for tier 2 & 3 cities. How states can get the most out of it