Citizens Engagement in Dharamshala
Citizen participation and engagement is central to the smart city proposal development process in Dharamshala. The present Municipal Council has a population of approximately 23,000 persons and it is the endeavor of MC Dharamshala to integrate each of these ‘voices’. Extensive engagement and consultations were conducted with the different stakeholder groups in the city and the public at large through multiple channels and platforms for the purpose. These included:
- Smart City discussion forum on MC Dharamshala website
- Social media – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
- Call for ideas through Logo design, branding and essay competitions
- Information kiosks at cultural and social events in the city
- Regular public meetings and Community level focused group discussions,
- Stakeholder workshops and meetings with various public agencies, city councilors, NGOs, local experts, the academia, hotelier and trade associations, taxi unions among others.
The engagement process also witnessed extensive enthusiasm and participation on the part of the citizens. The people of Dharamshala came up with written suggestions and detailed proposals for realizing the Smart City Vision. Numerous suggestions were received everyday throughout the proposal preparation process on the Smart City discussion forum of MC Dharamshala. In addition to the official Facebook page, the citizens voluntarily came up with a ‘Dharamshala Smart City’ page and community on the social networking site Facebook , which saw extensive activity and discussion by the members on how the city can realize its smart city vision. Competitions were floated for Logo designing and branding of the city. Students and youth contributed to the vision formulation through the essay competition on ‘Mere sapno ka shahar – Dharamshala’. All these activities resulted in more than two hundred ideas and proposals for the city and the Smart City Vision and Proposal for Dharamshala will endeavor to realize these.
Figure: Process of citizen engagement for Dharamshala Smart City Proposal
More than 3,000 members (14% population of the present municipal council) as on 28th October, 2015.
Figure: Snapshots of Citizens Engagement in Dharamshala
