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Make civic bodies self-reliant by increasing income: U.P. chief secy
Holding a meeting to review the physical financial progress of various schemes under urban development here, chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra said all efforts possible should be taken to make urban local bodies self-reliant in the matter of finance by increasing their income.
Lucknow: Laying emphasis on the need for making all the urban local bodies (ULBs) self-reliant, chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra on Saturday asked officials to revisit tax rates, fees, user charges etc recovered by the local bodies.
Holding a meeting to review the physical financial progress of various schemes under urban development here, he said all efforts possible should be taken to make ULBs self-reliant in the matter of finance by increasing their income.
“Besides tax reforms, efforts should be made to create new revenue sources for civic bodies, ” he said, asking officials to provide people online facility to pay all the charges and taxes. He also advised officials to study successful models in other states and replicate the same in UP.
Misra further said that work aiming to provide drinking water for 24 hours in at least one ward in each of the 75 districts should be expedited. He suggested the Ayodhya Nagar Nigam issue bonds.
He also asked officials to study Mumbai’s ‘dabba’ (tiffin) system and implement the same here through the National Urban Livelihood Mission. “This will help hostellers and other people to get fresh nutritious food in an easy way,” he said.
The CS was briefed in the meeting that as many 4,90,240 digital active vendors in the state had made transactions worth ₹63,53,320 till April 2023 with Varanasi, Firozabad, Prayagraj, Jhansi and Lucknow, having the highest number of active vendors.
It was also told in the meeting that under the State Smart Cities Mission, 90% of the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) work and 70% of the multi-parking work in Ayodhya had been completed and the ITMS work was near completion in Firozabad, Gorakhpur and Meerut.
The mission also seeks to set up at least one zonal citizen facility centre to resolve all issues related to payment of taxes and user charges.
