“Jansamvad” – Citizen Participation for Smart City Saharanpur

Saharanpur Municipal Corporation organized an eight day workshop and talk show “Jansamvad” as a part of citizen engagement program under mission smart city. The event was held on 29th September to 7th October 2015 at Hotel Oasis, Delhi Road, Saharanpur between 11:00 AM and 1:00 Pm Daily. More than 800 stakeholders including Honorable MP, MLAs, Heads of various educational institutions, student representatives, senior citizen representatives, RWAs, Media (Print/Electronic), representatives of various associations of advocates, doctors, engineers, CAs, Bankers, Taxi, Rickshaw and E-Rickshaw Unions, Business Group, NGO’s, Social Workers etc were participated in the workshop.

The schedule of workshop was as follows-

During this every day the workshop was started by a lighting a lamp by Saharanpur Municipal Commissioner Dr. Niraj Shukla, and chief guests of the workshop on that day.

The workshop was daily started by Dr. Niraj Shukla (Saharanpur Municipal Commissioner) by its own presentation and speech on mission smart city. After that Mr P.K. Sharma (Ex Associate professor, J.V Jain Degree College, Saharanpur) has discussed about mission smart city in details with participants.

This was followed by a presentation wherein citizens were informed about Guidelines, the Mission Smart City and how they can become a part of proposal making process. They were also informed about the various ongoing and planned citizen engagement activities through various Presentations and offline forums. A leaflet containing information about mission Smart City and citizen engagement process and a Feedback form were also distributed.

This was followed by a talk where stakeholders shared their suggestions and ideas on how to make Saharanpur a Smart City. Questionnaire seeking information on general suggestions, Area based development and Pan City initiatives were also filled by stakeholders.

List of Possible Smart Solutions

1. Online Reporting or Complaints and filing of applications for various approvals
1. Informing the Corporation by citizens on any issue/activity which is in violation of municipal bye laws/rules such as encroachments, illegal activities not permitted under the law.
2. Filing permission for seeking sewerage connection, water connection, road cut etc.
3. Submission of building plans for approvals
4. Seeking building occupation permissions(completion certificate)
2. Online payments for better recovery on resource mobilization
1. Property taxes
2. Rentals
3. Water and sewerage charges
4. Use of CCTV cameras for surveillance of
5. Regulating the traffic and pin pointing the traffic rule violators and identifying the hit and run cases
6. Check on thefts and encroachments and stray animals on the roads
7. City-wide Surveillance for Safety of woman and child on the roads
3. Use of sensors in water supply
4. Smart meters for regulating and saving the power

CITY PROFILE: Smart City Saharanpur (SAHART)

Saharanpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, is a city of 7.5 lakh population (census 2011) id administered by the Municipal Corporation Saharanpur. The city is the administrative headquarters of Saharanpur District as well as Saharanpur Division. Dating back to the Mughal period, situated close to the borders of Haryana and Uttarakhand States and situated in the fertile agricultural region which is famous for plentiful yields in grains and fruits, therefore Saharanpur is one of the flourishing cities of Uttar Pradesh. The city is internationally famous for its wood carving and cottage industry. It is a big market for local agricultural produce, including basmati rice, wheat and mangoes to name a few. A variety of agro-based industrial enterprises – such as textiles, sugar, paper and cigarette factories are located in this city.

The various rounds of a city engagement campaign have brought out the likely proposals for discussion with individuals, various groups of citizens, associations, and the committee formed for smart city proposals as follows:

1. Summary of the Write-up from the Citizens: Problems

2. Summary of the Write-up from the Citizens: Suggestions

3. Summary of the Write-up from the Citizens: Expectations

4. The emerging final picture out of the 30,000 responses

CITY WIDE CONCEPT PLAN
i) VISION: “Promoting and Developing local art and Skill by engaging citizens in smart development enabled by the use of technology in city governance and management targeting attainment of Quality of Life”
ii) Acronym: Saharanpur Smart City: SAHART
iii) GOALS:
i. Good Governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation
ii. Safety and Security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly
iii. Smart management of water and power supply
iv. Improving quality of life by adopting redevelopment, retrofit and preservation tools for area based schemes by involving the stakeholders; community based approach.
PAN CITY SOLUTIONS: Emerging out of citizens suggestions/priorities (e-governance)
i. Dividing the city into administrative zones and setting up of zonal offices by Corporation for maximum outreach and early solutions to the problems,
ii. City surveillance by installing CCTV cameras at strategic locations,
iii. Each CCTV camera to have solar panels for 24×7 power supply,
iv. Solid waste/Garbage collection centers and removal for final disposal.

AREA BASED DEVELOPMENT FINALISATION
Based on Public interactions, the area based projects have been identified and prioritized for phased development.
i. Redevelopment project identified and discussed with the citizens for adoption in PPP model.
ii. Land identified for green field project in PPP model is being discussed with citizens/stake-holders.
FINANCING AND IMPLEMENTATION PLANS
i. Efforts are on for involving private sector resource mobilization
ii. Forming JVCs for implementation and execution 
ii. Corporation will tie up its financing with the financing institutions

PREPARATION OF DRAFT PROPOSALS
1.Area based:
The proposals have been discussed with the stakeholders and the approach to be followed also discussed with the stake holders
2.Pan City Solutions/Proposals:
For installation of CCTV cameras with solar panels and strategic locations identified and discussed with the citizens. The suggestion on financing and implementation will be discussed for finalization in the next meeting before 15th November.

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