Bilaspur, Nagpur, and Raigarh civic bodies to receive ‘Spark award’

BILASPUR, Chhattisgarh: Bilaspur, Nagpur, and Raigarh Municipal Corporations to be felicitated with the “Spark 2023-24 Awards” (Systematic Progressive Analytical Real-Time Ranking) at an award ceremony to be held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. The civic bodies will be awarded for their performance under the Pandit Deendayal Urban Livelihood Mission.

Spark awards are conferred to recognise the efforts of states, UTs, civic bodies, lending institutions, and other partners in implementing DAY-NULM. Winners of these awards are selected based on their annual performance under the Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana—National Urban Livelihood Mission. This includes the number of beneficiaries who have benefited under the PM SVANidhi scheme.

On June 1, 2024, the Bilaspur Municipal Corporation was given the target of reaching 12,126 beneficiaries and getting them to fill out application forms. Since then, six months have passed. The corporation has exceeded the target by receiving and processing about 21,542 applicants. Of this, 15,534 applications were for the first loan, 5411 for the second loan, and 597 for the third loan. Of which, loans have been allocated to 7079 for first-time applicants, 2009 for second-time applicants, and 377 for third-time applicants.