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’.
