The Akankshi Nagar Yojana (ANY), also called Aspirational Cities Program (ACP), is a flagship initiative of the Government of Uttar Pradesh to address entrenched inequities in urban development. It targets 100 of the state’s smallest Urban Local Governments (ULGs), with populations between 20,000 and 100,000. Modelled on the Aspirational Districts Program, ANY aims for multi-sectoral transformation across infrastructure, health, education, governance, economic opportunity, and climate resilience. At its core, ANY recognises that India’s small and transitioning towns have long been outside the spotlight of urban reform, and expands the focus beyond metros, asserting that equitable urbanisation needs strategic investment in small towns. It does this, not just by delivering infrastructure, but by reimagining how towns are governed. 

The ACP-ANY Pilot: Laying the Groundwork

To demonstrate this this new model of urban transformation, the CSO knowledge partners under ANY, including Janaagraha, have been working in 5 pilot ULGs, selected in consultation with the Urban Development Department, Government of UP for deep-dive engagement. The 5 ULGs are Kaisarganj (Bahraich), Mohanlalganj (Lucknow), Ghaghsara Bazaar (Gorakhpur), Renukoot (Sonbhadra), and Ma Kamakhya (Ayodhya). 

Across these towns, a rigorous baselining exercise was undertaken, which helped develop a situation analysis for the ULGs. Some structural challenges were common across the town, such as skeletal staffing, weak public finance capacities and systems, inadequate physical and social (health and education) infrastructure, lack of planning functions and vision, and limited citizen engagement. In addition, each ULG also had its own unique characteristics and set of opportunities such as agricultural heartlands, temple and industrial economies, or peri-urban sprawl.  

In line with our principles and vision for place-based governance, the pilots are anchored in a powerful reform instrument: the City Action Plan (CAP). 

City Action Plans: Potential for Planning Reforms 

A City Action Plan (CAP) is not just a document — it is a reform roadmap that bridges diagnostics, priorities, institutional responsibilities, and action timelines. CAPs are: 

• Place-based: Grounded in the town’s unique socio-spatial profile. 

• Cross-sectoral: Spanning infrastructure, health, education, climate resilience, and governance. 

• Participatory and data-driven: Informed by consultations across ULG staff, elected representatives and communities, in addition to available institutional data. 

• Time-bound and actionable: With defined roles, budgets, schemes, and partners. 

Developed by a consortium of knowledge partners including Janaagraha, Samyak, and others, the CAPs aim to be living instruments, guiding not just project implementation but institutional reform and convergence. 

What We’re Seeing on the Ground: A Snapshot from Five Cities 

A Shared Baseline 

Across the five pilot ULBs, several consistent patterns have emerged: 

• <1% own-source revenue, leading to complete fiscal dependence on state and central grants. 

• Fragmented delivery across health, education, and urban departments, with no institutional convergence mechanisms. 

• Absence of city planning processes and instruments, no master plans, and no urban planners on staff. 

• Low digital capacity, with most towns offering only one or two citizen services online. 

• Inactive ward committees, with community voice largely absent in planning or budgeting. 

• Poor Solid Waste Management processes, Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) not operational despite capital assets in place. 

In addition, each ULG brings distinct local nuances that shape CAP priorities, illustrated with a few examples below:  

• Kaisarganj (Bahraich) 
  A newly constituted ULB, Kaisarganj’s challenges include an incomplete piped water supply network, seasonal flooding along the main drains, and weak staffing. The CAP for Kaisarganj has been developed, and it focuses on physical infrastructure upgrades, revenue mobilisation through property tax reforms, and activating dormant ward-level committees. 

• Mohanlalganj (Lucknow) 
  A peri-urban ULB with gated societies and legacy villages, Mohanlalganj has digital governance gaps, non-operational waste facilities, and a lack of street lighting in theft-prone areas. The CAP will prioritise infrastructure provisioning and integrating community participation into budgeting and service delivery. 
  
• Ghaghsara Bazaar (Gorakhpur) 
  An emerging town along the Sahjanwa-GIDA corridor, this ULB holds industrial potential (tiles, iron, local FMCG produce). However, no property tax systems exist, and ward committees are yet to be formed. The CAP will propose establishing fiscal discipline, strengthening market linkages, and initiating urban planning processes. 
  
• Renukoot (Sonbhadra) 
  A mining-adjacent town with an industrial footprint, Renukoot faces infrastructure deficits but has a potential partner in Hindalco, which is open to supporting women’s SHGs and livelihoods through CSR. The CAP will seek to leverage this partnership and focus on creating an environment for economic opportunity and community mobilisation. 
  
• Ma Kamakhya (Ayodhya) 
  With proximity to the Ma Kamakhya temple, this ULB sees footfall-driven potential. Yet, it operates with 103 of 104 staff on an outsourced basis, lacks planning systems, and has no digital service platforms. The CAP will focus on basic capacities, revenue systems, and tourism-related infrastructure. 

Why This Matters for Janaagraha’s Mission 

The ACP-ANY pilot could be an inflection point in Janaagraha’s journey to advance place-based governance and systemic reform in small cities. 

Through this initiative, we are: 

• Demonstrating place-based governance in action: CAPs are making governance spatially grounded and locally responsive, shifting the balance from top-down schemes to bottom-up planning. 

• Operationalising reform through real plans: The CAPs are not just reports, the vision is to utilise them to guide decisions, unlock funds, and hold departments accountable. Each CAP integrates timelines, stakeholders, schemes, and monitoring frameworks. 

• Building city and state capacities: Through training CM Fellows, enabling e-governance platforms, improving revenue systems, and promoting convergence between departments, the CAP seeks to build lasting capacity at both the ULG and state levels. 

Next Steps: Moving from Pilots to a New Governance Paradigm 

In the coming months, the pilots will focus on: 

• Institutionalising the CAPs within the ACP-ANY program (at a minimum through a Government Order), but also exploring more sustainable reform options.  

• Developing an implementation mechanism to ground the CAPs with ULG and departmental ownership. 

• Developing institutional mechanisms to deepen convergence across departments (health, education, urban, ICDS etc.). 

• Creating an enabling environment and sharing learnings with the state to inform policy and budget allocations for all 100 towns under ANY.