27-Apr-2023: MoHUA launches the ‘City Beauty Competition’
The ‘City Beauty Competition’ portal https://citybeautycompetition.in has been made live by the Ministry on April 26, 2023. Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across the country can participate in this competition through an online process. The objective of the competition is to encourage and recognize the transformational efforts made by cities and wards across the country to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces.
Under this competition, wards and public spaces in cities would be judged against five broad pillars viz., (i) accessibility (ii) amenities (iii) activities (iv) aesthetics and (v) ecology. The competition would felicitate the most beautiful wards and public spaces in the cities. While selected wards would be felicitated at the city and State levels, the top most beautiful public spaces in the cities under four categories viz. Waterfronts, Green spaces, tourist/ heritage spaces and market/commercial places would first be felicitated at the State level and the shortlisted entries would thereafter be considered for National level awards.
The last date for participating in the ‘City Beauty Competition’ is July 15, 2023. The participating ULBs can submit the required data/documents (including photographs, videos, presentation and self-reported baseline information) through the online facility created on https://citybeautycompetition.in. Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) as the knowledge partner will provide handholding support to Wards / ULBs / States in this exercise.
The City Beauty Competition provides a unique opportunity to the wards and cities to showcase their interventions towards creating beautiful public spaces. The competition would promote heritage and culture, sustainable communities and ecological conservation and would also encourage peer learning among states and cities.
20-Mar-2023: Success of AMRUT
Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, launched on June 2015 has been subsumed under AMRUT 2.0 launched by the Government of India on 1st October, 2021 under which funding for all ongoing and eligible projects of AMRUT will continue till 31st March, 2023.
Under AMRUT, States have been empowered to select, apprise, propose and after approval from Apex Committee of Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), implement projects within the broad framework of AMRUT Mission. Further, AMRUT guidelines have specific provisions for formation of State High Powered Steering Committee (SHPSC), headed by the Chief Secretary of the State, to monitor and supervise the implementation of the scheme at the State level.
Further, the Apex Committee constituted under the ambit of Mission guidelines also reviews, monitors & supervises the AMRUT Mission periodically. So far, 27 Apex Committee meetings have been conducted to approve, review & monitor AMRUT projects. For assessment and monitoring of work done under AMRUT in the States/ UTs, dedicated Independent Review and Monitoring Agencies (IRMAs) have been setup in all the Mission States/UTs. There is a dedicated AMRUT portal for tracking the progress of projects provided by the States/UTs. National Mission Directorate is also providing hand holding support to the States/ UTs and ULBs from time to time to resolve issues and eliminate bottlenecks for timely completion of projects. This has also resulted in capacity building of States/ULBs and thus achieved significant progress under the AMRUT Scheme. NITI Aayog has also conducted a third-party review for Centrally Sponsored Schemes including AMRUT. The report has been published in February 2021 and found satisfactory.
In addition, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has approved State Annual Action Plans (SAAPs) of all the States/Union Territories (UTs) amounting to ₹77,640 crore for the entire Mission period, which includes committed Central Assistance (CA) of ₹35,990 crore. So far, States/UTs have grounded 5,882 projects worth ₹82,565 crore, of which 4,802 projects worth ₹35,932 crore have been completed, contracts have been awarded and work in progress for 1,080 projects worth ₹46,632 crore. Further, overall works worth around ₹69,219 crore have been physically completed and expenditure of ₹61,980 crore has been incurred. Till date, 137 lakh water tap connections and 105 lakh sewer connections (including households covered through Faecal Sludge and Septage Management- FSSM) have been provided through AMRUT & convergence against targeted 139 lakh water connections and 145 lakh sewer connections respectively. Total Sewage treatment capacity of 6,347 Million Liters Per Day (MLD) is being developed through AMRUT projects. Of which, 2,840 MLD sewage treatment capacity has been created & 1,437 MLD capacity has been developed for recycle/reuse. AMRUT has led to development of 2,322 park projects adding 4,512-acre of green spaces. Additionally, 908-acre of green spaces will be added through ongoing park projects. 692 Storm Water Drainage projects have been completed under AMRUT. This has resulted in elimination of 2,960 water logging points and another 801 water logging points are in progress of elimination. In order to promote the environment-friendly mode of transport and infrastructure, 273 Green Mobility projects have been successfully completed. Against Central share of ₹35,990 crore for projects, ₹31,784 crore have been released so far.
10-Feb-2023: Budget Allocation for NAMASTE scheme
- Union Budget 2023-2024 has allocated nearly Rs 100 crore for NAMASTE.
- The government aims to enable 100% mechanical desludging of septic tanks and sewers in all cities and towns.
- The process of extending the Scheme to all the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) of the country has been initiated.
NAMASTE Scheme was launched in 2022 as a Central Sector Scheme. The scheme is being undertaken jointly by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJE).
Objectives:
- Eradicate unsafe sewer and septic tank cleaning practices.
- Ensure Zero fatalities in sanitation work in India.
- No sanitation workers should come in direct contact with human faecal matter.
- Strengthen supervisory and monitoring systems at National, State and Urban Local Body (ULB) levels.
- Increase awareness among sanitation services seekers to seek services from registered and skilled sanitation workers.
- Collectivising Sanitation workers into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and empowering them to run sanitation enterprises.
Features:
- Identification of Sewer/Septic Tank Workers (SSWs).
- Occupational training and distribution of PPE kits to SSWs.
- Assistance for safety devices to Sanitation Response Units (SRUs).
- Extension of health insurance scheme benefits to identified SSWs and their families under Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).
- Livelihood assistance to promote mechanization and enterprise development by providing funding support and subsidy. (capital + interest) to sanitation workers to procure sanitation-related equipment.
- IEC campaign jointly undertaken by ULBs and National Safai Karamcharis Finance & Development Corporation (NSKFDC) to spread awareness about the interventions of NAMASTE.