100-day sister cities challenge

Syllabus subtopic: Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections of the population by the Centre and States and the Performance of these Schemes

Prelims and Mains focus: about the key features of the event; about smart city mission and its objectives

News: Organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), the 100-day sister cities challenge will commence on 20^th February.

What is it?

The challenge pairs the 20 best performing Smart Cities with the 20 bottom ones in implementing projects under the Smart City mission.

The program of pairing the best performing smart cities to poorly performing smart cities as 'sister cities' is being called 20-20 formula. Sister Cities will sign a memorandum agreement on February 20 under this program.

About the event

The cities have been paired based on a certain criteria; for instance, coastal towns, state capitals, industrial hubs, hilly terrain or educational destinations are paired up with each other.

PM Modi’s Varanasi constituency, currently ranked 14th, will be paired up with Amritsar as both attract religious tourists.

The sister cities will have a joint meeting once every 30 days (via video conferencing), and at least once in the 100-day period “the teams of sister cities would visit the city and understand the Smart Cities projects under implementation and completion.” Technical drawings and financial studies including DPRs, feasibility reports and impact assessment reports will be shared amongst the two cities.

The internal rankings of the cities is drawn up every Friday in the Ministry based on performance (80 per cent) and utilisation of funds (20 per cent).”

About Smart City Mission

The Smart City Mission focuses on the most relevant and greater opportunities to improve lives in India. The objective of this project is to provide a clean and sustainable environment for smart solutions.

The project includes core infrastructure elements like proper sanitation, adequate water supply, robust IT connectivity, sustainable environment, safety and security of citizens, education, and health, etc.

The government of India has been distributed to 100 smart cities among the total number of states and UTs.

Source: The Hindu

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