Atal Shresth Shahar Yojna (ASSY)

What is Atal Shresth Shahar Yojna?

Atal Shresth Shahar Yojna (ASSY) is a performance-award scheme of the Urban Development Department, Government of Himachal Pradesh, administered by the Directorate of Urban Development at Palika Bhavan, Talland, Shimla. The scheme came into force on 1 April 2018 and pays large untied cash awards to the urban local bodies that deliver the best civic performance in the state.

Atal Shresth Shahar Yojna started as a two-category contest: the state government set out to pick the single best Municipal Council and the single best Nagar Panchayat. In the budget speech for 2020-21 the Chief Minister widened it to the top three Municipal Councils and the top three Nagar Panchayats, and in the budget speech for 2022-23 it was extended again to cover Municipal Corporations, so that every category of urban local body in Himachal Pradesh now competes. The name is often written as Atal Shrestha Shahar Yojna, and the prize itself is called the Atal Shrestha Shahar Puruskar.

The award is presented on 25 December every year, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, though the 2022 guidelines allow the function to be shifted to another date if circumstances require it.

Why the scheme exists. The guidelines set out the reasoning plainly. Urban local bodies are the link between the state government and the urban population, and they deliver sanitation, parks, roads, garbage collection and street lighting. Raising that standard needs competitive pressure, so the state ranks its towns and pays real money to the winners.

Who is eligible for Atal Shresth Shahar Yojna?

Bodies that can take part:

• Every Municipal Corporation in Himachal Pradesh, from the 2022-23 round onward.
• Every Municipal Council in the state.
• Every Nagar Panchayat in the state.

Participation is not voluntary. The guidelines state that it is mandatory for all urban local bodies of Himachal Pradesh to participate in the scheme. There is also no bar on a repeat winner. A body that won an ASSY prize in the preceding year or years may compete again immediately.

Who cannot apply:

• Individual residents cannot apply. ASSY carries no personal benefit, no beneficiary list and no citizen application form. A resident of Solan or Mandi cannot register for it, and anyone offering to "add your name" to ASSY is running a fraud.
• Gram Panchayats and rural bodies are not eligible. ASSY is confined to urban local bodies. The comparable rural competition in Himachal Pradesh is the Maharishi Valmiki Sampoorn Swachata Puraskar run by the Rural Development Department.
• Contractors, resident welfare associations, NGOs and private agencies are not eligible to file a claim in their own name, though a local NGO member or eminent resident could be co-opted onto the assessment committee under the earlier 2020 guidelines.

A body that files a false claim is penalised: its grant is reduced and disciplinary action is initiated.

How is an urban local body scored under ASSY?

The ranking combines one central parameter with five state parameters.

The 2020 guidelines used a slightly different split: public service delivery 2,000, increase in income 2,000, fund utilisation 1,000, public infrastructure 500 and audit paras settled 500, so a town comparing its old and new scores should check which year's marking scheme applied.

Public service delivery is measured in a very specific way. Annexure-A asks how many birth, death and marriage certificate applications the urban local body received in the last financial year and how many certificates were issued within two days as against beyond two days. It then asks the same question for permissions; canopy, muck dumping, BPL certificate, trade licence, electricity, water supply, sewerage and building plan permission; measured against a seven-day standard, and for no-objection certificates against a 30-day standard. Speed of disposal, not volume, is what earns marks.

How to apply for Atal Shresth Shahar Yojna

1. Compile the previous financial year's records — certificate and permission disposal counts, own-income figures, fund release and expenditure statements, audited accounts, the audit para settlement position and public infrastructure evidence.
2. Fill Annexure-A, the application form cum self-assessment, entering the name of the urban local body, the name and mobile number of the Executive Officer or Secretary, and a self-assessed score against every parameter.
3. Submit the claim on the department's online platform by 30 September. The 2022 guidelines moved ASSY to an online submission platform; the 2020 guidelines required a paper claim sent to the Director of Urban Development by the same date.
4. Respond to the screening query, if any. No claim is rejected for a clerical mistake, the department gives the body additional time to correct it.
5. Host the field verification team. The top two Municipal Corporations, top six Municipal Councils and top six Nagar Panchayats are visited and verified.
6. Attend the award function on 25 December, when the State Level Apex Committee's decision is announced and prizes are handed over.

How are ASSY claims screened and verified?

Under the 2022 guidelines, the online platform generates a ranked report from the claims submitted, and that report goes to the competent authority for approval of field verification. A Third Party Agency hired by the department then physically verifies the claims of the top two Municipal Corporations, the top six Municipal Councils and the top six Nagar Panchayats. The agency may demand any supporting document and is bound to keep the information confidential. The Director, Urban Development may separately call for additional papers from the agency in case of doubt.

Under the earlier 2020 guidelines, screening was done by a Screening Committee headed by the Director, Urban Development, with members from the Urban Development Department, the Directorate, the Town and Country Planning Department and the Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board. A five-member Assessment Committee then did the field visits, and its members first took a formal oath of impartiality set out in Annexure-B.

In both versions the final call rests with the State Level Apex Committee, chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary or Secretary (Urban Development), with the Finance and Environment, Science and Technology secretaries and the Director, Town and Country Planning as members and the Director, Urban Development as Member Secretary. Its decision is final and no appeal is admissible.

How much prize money does ASSY pay?

Where two or more urban local bodies tie for a position, the prize money for that position is divided equally among them.

The 2022 guidelines also record the scheme's annual fund allocation: Rs 500 lakh for prize distribution, Rs 10 lakh for administrative and other expenses including the prize function, Rs 15 lakh for the Third Party Agency and Rs 15 lakh one-time for the online platform with five years of annual maintenance. A total of Rs 540 lakh.

How can the award money be spent?

Atal Shresth Shahar Yojna imposes four spending rules:

1. The award is an untied grant to the winning urban local body.
2. It shall not form part of the income of the body.
3. It cannot be spent on salaries or wages of the body's employees.
4. The winning body may frame a staff reward scheme of up to Rs 5,000 per employee. One employee may be considered under more than one category or indicator, but the total prize for any individual cannot exceed Rs 5,000.

Common reasons an ASSY claim scores poorly

• Missing the 30 September cut-off. The timeline is fixed and the screening stage begins immediately afterwards.
• Weak service-delivery records. Marks depend on being able to show how many certificates were issued within two days and how many permissions within seven days. A body that does not keep dated disposal registers cannot claim these marks.
• Unsettled audit paras and unaudited accounts. This parameter is worth 1,000 marks under the 2022 guidelines, up from 500 in 2020.
• A poor Swachh Survekshan result the previous year, which is carried into ASSY directly and cannot be improved retrospectively.
• Claims that field verification cannot substantiate. The Third Party Agency can call for any supporting document, and a false claim attracts a grant deduction and disciplinary action.
• Low fund utilisation. Unspent grants cost 1,500 marks under the 2022 marking scheme.

Clerical mistakes are the one thing that will not sink a claim, the department is required to give the urban local body time to rectify them.

Where to get help with ASSY

• Directorate of Urban Development, Palika Bhavan, Talland, Milsington Estate, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh 171002.
• Phone: 0177-2626518 and 0177-2626516.
• Email: ud-hp@nic.in.
• Scheme page and guidelines download: the Atal Shresth Shahar Yojna page on the Urban Development Department website, ud.hp.gov.in.

Residents who want their town to do better under ASSY have a practical lever: the scheme rewards fast issue of birth, death and marriage certificates, trade licences, water and sewerage connections and building permissions. Complaints about delays in exactly those services, filed with the municipal office, feed straight into the parameter that carries 1,500 marks.