The commissioner of the Corporation of the City of Panaji might not want to admit it. The Chief Minister did not bother to make a comment and the Mayor of the city chose to remain silent. But the truth is that Panaji, the capital city of the State lost out in the
race for smart city status, which would have brought it a cash tranche of Rs 500 crore. The Rs 2 crore build-up was well orchestrated. There were discussions, friendly neighbourhood kiosks, meetings, seminars and at the end of it came a proposal
that looked impressive, like most of the plans that came before it. But there was one flaw “ Panaji was not willing to shell out money to become a smart city. It wanted a free lunch.
One of the clauses in the scheme said that the city would have to bring is funds to match the grants given by the Centre. This is where the CCP defaulted. This is also where the State
government abandoned the CCP to its own devices. In effect,
the clause meant Panaji would have to raise Rs 100 crore every
year to finance the smart city plan,
an enormous task. Alternately, it
would have to raise a portion of
the sum and borrow the remaining
from the government. But this was
never explored because it was too
much of a hassle for corporators
who did not want to shoulder the
burden of having to pay back the
money.
The second reason why Panaji got
knocked out of the ring was its refusal to impose user charges
for services provided. In an election year, corporators were
reluctant to either tax voters or transfer user charges to people
because both would make them unpopular.
There is logic to the finance aspects of the smart city plan.
The more money citizens shell out the more vigilant they become.
They will demand to know how their money is being
used and get more involved in planning and implementation.
However, one cannot force city dwellers to shell out cash without
giving clear promises on how the money will be used. People
do not mind paying for garbage collection because they
see merit in the service provided, but they are not going to give
money to the CCP on demand and for a fancy tag.
The logical thing to do is to first ascertain how the money can
be raised from the city. In terms of revenue generated, Panaji
stands above the commercial city of Margao, but all this money
goes to the State kitty and only a small percentage come
back to the city. Casinos alone contribute over Rs 125 core to
the exchequer and even if a small portion of this revenue were
to be ploughed back to the city, Panaji would inch closer to its
smart city dream.
A study of how much money the capital city contributes to
the government is essential to ascertain how much can be diverted
to smart city plan. The remaining can easily be contributed
by the city. As far as user charges go, we must develop
the culture of paying for services rendered. The commissioner
would have us believe that all is not lost. Panaji might have
been out-smarted in the first round, but is at position five in
the second round and will definitely make it. If that were to
happen it would be ‘Paradise Regained’.
