By Rudi Warjri
Sometime ago I had written about the need for the Shillong Governing Authority. My suggestion was a result of the symposia held at IIM Shillong on “Improving Mobility in Shillong City,” with the subject of traffic jams as the main issue. Last week the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the Citizen Perception Survey (CPS) 2022. CPS is a part of the Ease of Living Index 2022 that aims to capture the opinion of citizens about the quality of life in their city; economic ability and sustainability . https://eol2022.org/citizenfeedback.
A Workbook – Making a City Smart : Learnings from Smart Cities Mission , was also released . https://smartnet.niua.org/sites/default/files/resources/making_a_city_smart_mar2021.pdf. Prescribed mainly for decision makers , urban planners , policy makers and practitioners the above would also be useful for academic institutions , students and general awareness of the populace in general .
CPS contains the
following questionnaires !
Q1. How do you commute in your city? Motorised Personal vehicle (Car, Bike, Scooter); Non-motorised Personal vehicle (Cycle, push scooters); Public transport; Q2. Do you rent a house or own a house? Q3. How often do you face power outage in your house? (1 being rarely and 5 being frequently); Q4. How satisfied are you with the availability of water supply in your house? (1 being dissatisfied and 5 being satisfied); Q5. Rate the quality of water supply in your house (1 being the dirtiest and 5 being the cleanest); Q6. How affordable are healthcare services in your city? (1 being not affordable and 5 being affordable); Q6A. How accessible are healthcare services in your city? (1 being not accessible and 5 being accessible); Q6B. How do you rate the quality of healthcare services in your city? (1 being lowest and 5 being highest);
Q7. How affordable are education facilities in your city? (1 being not affordable and 5 being affordable); Q7A. How accessible are education facilities in your city? (1 being not accessible and 5 being accessible); Q7B. How do you rate the quality of education facilities in your city? (1 being lowest and 5 being highest); Q8. How easy is to find employment opportunities in your city? (1 being the hardest and 5 being the easiest); Q9. How do you rate the level of air pollution in your city? (1 being lowest and 5 being highest); Q10. How do you rate cleanliness in your city? (1 being dirty and 5 being clean); Q11. Are there adequate recreational facilities (Parks, sports complex, theatre/cinema halls, etc.) in your city? (1 being inadequate and 5 being adequate); Q12. How easy is it to travel in your city? (1 being the hardest and 5 being the easiest); Q13. How safe do you feel in your city? (1 being very unsafe and 5 being very safe);Q14. How would you rate the cost of living in your city? (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest); Q15. How easy is it to walk in your city? (1 being the hardest and 5 being the easiest); Q16. How would you rate your interaction with your municipality? (1 being bad and 5 being good); Q17. How likely would you recommend the city to a friend or a relative looking for a place to live? (1 being very unlikely and 5 being most likely);
Citizens of Shillong city are requested to visit url https://eol2022.org/citizenfeedback and please answer the questionnaires .
Smart Cities Mission
Vision : The purpose of the Smart Cities Mission is to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology, especially technology that leads to Smart .
What is a Smart City? City that works for migrant workers and their families; City that leverages its local strength and retains young talent (Agnes Nongrum a student of National Institute of Technology , Shillong – co founded a food start up that procures organic jack fruit and sells it across India via e – commerce ; City that promotes a green and healthy future
Why a Smart City ? Inclusion ; Engagement ; Resilience ; Adaptability ; Healthy Urban Environment ; Resource Conservation and Regeneration ; Connectivity; Safety and Security ; Responsible Technology; More from Less ;
How to determine what’s a Smart City ? Build a Small Crack team ; Sense the city through research and data ; Identify your Stake holders ; Sense the city by engaging with stakeholder groups and communities ; Innovate : Do things differently.‘ A business as usual attitude won’t make your city smart ; Put together a draft Smart City : Plan using an ORK + A Framework ; Ensure that the Smart City Plan projects are bankable ; Determine in the Smart city plan how your city is contributing towards the country’s international commitments; deploy technology effectively ; write the smart city plan but remember to keep the plan flexible and iterative ;
The Smart Cities Mission is guided by the following core principles:
1. Citizens at the core: Citizens are involved in every stage of Smart City development. 2. More from less: Smart Cities strive to generate more impact and outcomes from use of less resources- energy, finance and others. 3.coperative and competitive federalism: cooperative collaboration and healthy competition between States and cities. 4. Convergence: Smart Cities are focused on creation of integrated infrastructure and services, promotion of circular economy and sustainable habitats through convergence of financial resources and programs. 5. Technology as a means, and not the goal: Technology enables and provides speed and scale but is not the end result of smart city development. 6. Inclusiveness: Cities are for all people irrespective of age, gender, background and ability and hence they have to be inclusive to be smart .
As of 2018 there are over 4, 300 statutory towns and cities in India with 40 crore inhabitants. This is expected to double by 2050. So far in the 100 cities in India, work has been completed in 4436 projects amounting to Rs 75,827 cr out of a sanctioned 2,05,018 cr .
Considering the humongous number of towns and cities in India the CPS is largely indicative and not exhaustive. What is lacking in the CPS is however covered extensively in the Workbook. The Workbook provides the format , methods , techniques and tools that would enable each city in India to address its particular needs . It serves as a convenient guide to address the exceptional needs of growing city like Greater Shillong where three fourths of the area comes under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution and outside the jurisdiction of the Municipality.
The website of the MoHUA also contains information with regards to city awareness programme such as billboards and hoardings; campaigns; print media; innovative initiatives ; wall graffiti ; referral survey promotion; digital media with a scoring chart on each of them .
The Meghalaya Government portal only mentions the Office of the Shillong Smart City Ltd. There is no other information except for some tenders relating to multi-level parking at Motphran. Inter alia it is opportune to immediately involve civil societies already active in waste management, cleaning of rivers, environmental groups etc like Operation Clean Up , Green Tech Meghalaya, Team Jiva, Project Clean Surrounding and many others.
(The writer is a former diplomat)