PANJIM: As per the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA), Goa ranks 12th in the list of States and Union Territories (UTs) which have not released their adequate share of funds for the Smart City Mission, a flagship programme of the Central Government. The State capital Panjim is the only designated smart city in Goa.
As per Central data, 28 of the 36 States and UTS have not released their adequate share. The mission that was launched in June 2015 that is developing 100 smart cities involves a 50:50 financing model with the Centre contributing Rs 500 crore and the State giving an equal share for five years. Over the last five years, the Central government has been regularly releasing its share to the States for the smart cities but some of the States have not been releasing their corresponding contributions. Due to this, the gap in the overall State share has risen to Rs 6,258 crore.
The Central government has released Rs 27,282 crore but the State’s matching share is Rs 21,024 crore.
Goa is the 12th State, along with UT Puducherry, where both have not released 42 per cent of its share. Telangana, which has two smart cities tops the list and UT Lakshadweep, is the second highest defaulter.
In October 2020, MOHUA had written a letter to the State government, questioning why the State government had transferred only Rs 118.2 crore to the Panjim Smart City Mission from the Rs 196 crore the Centre had released for the Mission in 2019.
Earlier this year in August 2021, MOHUA had released further data showing that Goa was placed on the fast track with a planned outlay of Rs 608.4 crore, out of which only 16.2 crore had been spent on 10 projects, most of which were beautification works. Panjim Smart City recently inaugurated the beautified Miramar beach front for Rs 12 crore, while other major development works, such as smart roads, sewerage network, solar power connections are being processed. The Integrated Command Centre which will have CCTV cameras placed at various locations in the city as well as entry points is expected to be launched soon.
Goa 3rd cleanest State with less than 100 cities
Goa was adjudged as the third cleanest State amongst 14 States with less than 100 urban local bodies by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA).
This was revealed in MOHUA’s Swachh Sarvekshan cleanliness ranking released on Saturday. President Ram Nath Kovind presented the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2021 at a function held in New Delhi on Saturday.
The Swachh Survekshan initiative of the Central government is aimed at encouraging cities and states to take up cleanliness efforts with a competitive spirit.
Incidentally no city in Goa featured in the clean cities list. Among the 659 districts, North Goa district ranked 324th and South Goa 463rd in the cleanliness ranking.
MOHUA stated that at least 4,320 cities were surveyed in 28 days during the Swachh Sarvekshan. The Union Ministry added that over 4.2 crore people gave their feedback during the process. Goa bagged third place with a score of 1,350 while Jharkhand topped the list with a score of 1,880 followed by Haryana with 1,745 score.
In States with more than 100 ULBs, Chhattisgarh was adjudged the best performing State. Indore was awarded the cleanest city award.