But the crux of the workshop was clear -- make civic administration investor-friendly. Former Chief Secretary D M Sukhthankar admitted that the current situation was different than when he was in service. "Cities are competing to attract talent and investment to generate wealth,'' he said. Kundu said cities had to be clean and sanitised to attract foreign investment.

Dhumal cautioned officers saying that all manufacturing units would now come up in non-octroi areas while urban centres would have service industries. He said civic bodies would have to show flexibility on octroi rules if they wanted industries in their area. The government had already issued a notification to give 25 per cent concession to industrial units, he added.

UDD Principal Secretary asked the municipal commissioners why civic bodies should not have marketing departments. He expressed readiness to issue necessary notification to ensure that civic bodies had marketing departments.

MUDRA fascinates them
Indiresan's new concept of MUDRA (Managing Urban Development with Rural Ambience) made an impression on the municipal commissioners. MUDRA is a 30-km ring route with human settlement around it. Such a settlement can support 1 million people and the expense to construct a 30-km route would not be more than Rs 50 crore. It would help decongest cities and could be the solution for slum rehabilitation. Indiresan claimed that President A P J Abdul Kalam was a strong supporter of the concept but lamented that there were no takers for the concept.

To which, principal secretary Vishwas Dhumal said, municipal commissioners could do precious little because they managed civic affairs.