Nagpur Municipal Corporation Citizen Engagement

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has conducted various Smart City related events over the last 3 months. Different mediums and ways to maximize citizen engagement in the smart city programme and evolve proposals through these engagements has been the key focus of NMC.

Shri. PRAVIN DATKE, Honorable Mayor of Nagpur City, addressing Citizens through Video message on SmartCity initiatives by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (https://youtu.be/TQYzEqkJakQ)

Shri. MUNNA POKULWAR, Deputy Mayorof Nagpur City, addressing Citizens through Video message on SmartCity initiatives by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (https://youtu.be/39tbPnV6PcU)

Aggressive and Extensive Media Campaign

A sustained and aggressive media campaign was also rolled out in parallel to the Smart City Idea Challenge contest. The campaigns were run through the Sakal and Times of India newspapers. These campaigns were organized between August and September.

The objective was not only to publicise the Idea Challenge, but also be provide views from various citizens and eminent personalities who have travelled extensively. This would provide both a perspective on what could Nagpur learn from other cities and also what citizens were expecting as Nagpur embarked on the journey to become a Smart City.

These campaigns have provided valuable insights into what the common man is expecting as Nagpur starts preparing its ascent onto becoming a Smart City.
The Sakal group also organised Focus Group Discussions on various aspects of the issues and challenges facing the Nagpur City. These FGDs also provided various ideas that will be utilised while the City prepares it Smart City Proposal.

A brief of these campaigns and FGDs has been provided in the below matrix:

Nagpur Municipal Corporation has focused on ever stakeholder, all means to engage, and to disseminate the developments towards Nagpur’s smart city initiatives. For this, active media engagement was also ensured by NMC. Various media engagement meeting were planned and carried out. These media meetings were addressed by Honorable Mayor and Municipal Commissioner both.

In Photos: Honorable Mayor addressing the reporters and sensitising media personals in presence of Deputy Mayor, Chairman-Standing Committee, Ruling party leader, Noal Officer-Smart city programmen-Nagpur

Honorable Mayor addressing the reporters

Municipal Commissioner addressing reporters and sharing development till date about smart city initiatives by NMC

Reporters from different active media groups

Workshop with Elected Representatives’

The NMC had organised a workshop which was Chaired by the Mayor and all the elected representatives were invited were invited to the workshop. The objective of the workshop was to sensitise all the elected representatives with respect to the Smart City programme and seek their involvement in the same.

Approximately 80 elected representatives (of which almost 30% were Women) participated in the workshop and provided their views and ideas for the preparation of the Smart City Proposal.

Shri. RAMESH SINGARE, Chairman of Standing Committee, NMC, addressing Citizens through Video message on Smart City initiatives by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (https://youtu.be/TKanfi541Qs)

Shri. DAYASHANKAR TIWARI, Ruling Party Leader – Bhartiya Janta Party, addressing Citizens through Video message on Smart City initiatives by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (https://youtu.be/sDlBKhE2rpo)

Sesnitisation workshop with NMC councilors

Welcoming degnitaries of the workshops

Welcoming degnitaries of the workshops

Welcoming degnitaries of the workshops

Municipal Commissioner making presentation on smart city mission guidelines

Honorable Mayor asking NMC councilors to interact with citizens in their wards and bring out the grey areas and solutions to improve same

Special Meeting with Guardian minister of Nagpur

Guardian minister of Nagpur, Shri. Chandrashekhar Bawankuleji has been so keen in all the development activities and planning for Nagpur like always; and has agreed to extend his support in full capacity. For this, special meeting with guardian minister, MPs and MLAs of the region was arranged during which guardian minister shared his insights about the development of Nagpur and views on how NMC should really take best possible advantage of the smart city mission programme launched by MoUD, Govt of India.

There were discussion on various practical and possible interventions that are in line with the requirement of citizens of Nagpur and also that fits the requirements of the smart city guidelines.

Shri. Chandrashekhar bawankule, Gaurdian Minister of Nagpur, addressing Citizens through Video message on Smart City initiatives by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (https://youtu.be/7MEbUy-t8HQ)

In Photos: From top – 1. Special meeting with Guardian minister of Nagpur;2. Guardian miniter address the participants; 3. Honorable Mayor addressing the participants; 4. Municipal Commissioner making presentation ot Gaurdian minister; 5. Open discussion about Nagpur’s initiatives for smart city programme; 6. & 7. Filling of citizen engagement forms, 8. Discussion on internventions for Nagpur city

Visioning through Citizens
The NMC had conducted various Citizen Engagement programmes at each of the 10 Zones of the NMC. The Zone Sabhapatis (elected representatives) were requested to lead these workshops and invite suggestions and views with respect to making Nagpur a Smart City. These meetings were organised between 10th and 30th August, 2015.

For developing a vision for Smart City Nagpur, the NMC has already embarked on an ambitious programme to reach out to every single household in the city. The objectives are two-fold:

1. Solicit Vision for Smart City Nagpur from each household.
2. Understand neighbourhood level issues and challenges to making Nagpur a Smart City.

To this end, the NMC has initiated a drive of reaching out to every household and seeking their views through a very simple format which allows citizens to express their vision for the City as well as provide feedback on statements relating to the neighborhood level facilities.

This campaign of reaching out to every household has been kick-started on 10th October. Various mediums have been pressed into action distribute 6,50,000 forms and collect the same once each household has provided their perspective.

The mediums being utilised for distributing these forms are:

1. 2,000 NMC officers from all 10 Zones of NMC have been asked to reach out to at least 250 households individually to distribute and collect the filled up forms.
2. Over 100 Navratri Mandals were also provided with forms to distribute and solicit feedback.
3. Forms were also placed on www.smartcitynagpur.comwebsite to solicit online feedback.

An orientation workshop was organised for all the 2000 NMC officials where the Commissioner made a presentation on the objectives of the Smart City programme as well as the objectives behind soliciting feedback from the entire citizenry. A similar programme was also held for over a 100 Navratri Mandals wherein a prize was also announced for the Navratri Mandal that could getting the maximum feedback.

Thus the NMC has been reaching out to each of its citizens and is actively involving them in the process of Visioning and preparing the Smart City Proposal.

Shri. SHRAVAN HARDIKAR Commissioner of Nagpur City addressing Citizens through Video message on SmartCity initiatives by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (https://youtu.be/x5NtiIwXXVs)

In Photos: (Left) Municipal Commissioner Sensitising NMC staff regarding Citizen engagement (Right) NMC staff actively participating in the smart city programme of NMC

In Photos:Workshop with Navratri Mandals and sensitising about citizen engagement and form distributio

Ideation through Strategic Stakeholder Involvement

In parallel to the campaign of reaching out to each household, the NMC has also organised various Strategic Stakeholder Consultation Workshops. The objective of these workshops was to solicit feedback and ideas for including Smart features in each sphere of NMC’s operations and citizen experience of the city as a whole.

The Strategic Stakeholder Consultation workshops were targeted to involve varied stakeholders in across sectors which could help in providing inputs to Smart City proposals.

The Sectors on which the workshops have been organised are as follows:

1. E-Governance & Digitalization
2. Waste Management & Sanitation and Environment
3. Healthcare
4. Water Supply
5. Safety, Security & Disaster Management
6. Transport & Mobility
7. Education
8. Energy / Power
9. Open and Green Spaces & Parks
10. Income, Economy & Employment
11. Housing
12. Tourism and Heritage

Various stakeholders were invited to participate in these consultations. The stakeholders were invited from the following groups:

1. Subject Matter Experts
2. Sabhapatis of respective sectors
3. Associations or Business Groups of respective sectors
4. Industry Players
5. Professionals
6. Solution Providers
7. Citizen Groups in respective sectors

The Strategic Stakeholder Consultation Workshops were organised as outlined below:

Besides the above, the NMC has also engaged with the Nagpur Smart City Council, a Citizen driven Knowledge Forum, which plans to assist the NMC in making Nagpur a Smart City. The NSCC has over 50 members drawn from various walks of life and also has a roster of sector experts. The Commissioner, NMC had interacted with the NSCC members and had also requested them to be a part of the Strategic Stakeholder Consultations that were organised as detailed above. Various experts from NSCC have also participated in the above mentioned workshops.

In addition, the NMC also undertook a Consultation Workshop with 12 members of the Confederation of India Industry (CII). CII was also asked to facilitate Expert participation on the Strategic Stakeholder Consultation Workshops mentioned above.

The Association of Consulting Civil Engineers was also invited for a detailed discussion on various issues and sectors. The workshop was held on 20th October, 2015. A 10 member delegation from the Association held extensive discussions on various sectors and have also provided inputs on Smart City measures.

A consolidated summary of the various interactions that have been undertaken so far has been presented below:

Thus, the NMC has included a range of stakeholders in the process of Visioning and ideation for preparation of its SCP proposal.

Number of suggestions and feedbacks received from citizens through various media

The following is a summary of the number of suggestions and feedback received from various media:

1. Over 1.5 lakh households through Vision and Feedback forms (2.5 lakh forms have been distributed)
2. 1365 Entries under Smart City Idea Challenge
3. 278 Essay Competition Entries
4. More than 10 detailed Media articles
5. Over 80 elected representatives
6. over 300 stakeholders from various groups and associations

Analysis and Inferences from Citizen Engagement forms

The various forms of analysis being carried out have been captured below:

1. Expressed Vision for Nagpur as a Smart City
2. Various sectoral issues viz. water & sanitation, transport & mobility, safety & security, economy & employment.
3. Smart features and measures that can be included in existing infrastructure systems
4. Identification of key areas needing greater attention in the city
5. Identification of key infrastructure deficiencies in the city

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