CAG Report No. 11 of 2025 — Implementation of Smart City Mission, Government of Karnataka

Chapter-II
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2.5 Implementation of Sister Cities Concept
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs paired Davanagere (top 20 cities)
with Bareilly (bottom 20 cities) under the Sister Cities initiative to improve
performance through collaboration. As per the MoU signed on (February 2020),
the cities were to conduct monthly video conferences and visit each other’s
cities at least once in 100 days. However, only one video conference was held,
and no city visits took place during the MoU's one-year validity. The MoU was
not extended, and the intended knowledge sharing and support for Bareilly's
improvement were not achieved. DSCL's claim that a WhatsApp group was
used for communication was deemed unacceptable as it did not adhere to the
SCM guidelines. Despite this, Bareilly's ranking improved from 86 to 68 in the
Geo-spatial Management Information System (GMIS) 100 city ranking as on
June 2024.