Bhubaneswar: The civic body surrendered the title of best performing urban local body to the Rourkela Municipal Corporation for the first time.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has held the title since 2012-13 and received grants for performing better than other municipal corporations. However, this time, the grant went to Rourkela. The housing and urban development department assesses the performances of the state's urban local bodies on different parameters and accordingly gives away awards and incentives in three categories - best performing municipal corporation, municipalities and notified area councils.

The Rourkela civic body beat off competition from Sambalpur, Berhampur, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar to bag the best performing municipal corporation award. Rourkela also received an incentive grant of Rs 2 crore.

"We found that Rourkela had done better than others after assessment. So, the award and the incentive went to them," said an official of the department.

The assessment includes categories such as revenue collection, implementation of environment norms, sewage and solid waste management and storm water drainage system, among others. Sources said the BMC performed poorly in revenue collection, resulting in the loss.

Last September, chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi reviewed the revenue collection status of different urban local bodies and expressed his displeasure at the BMC's performance. The review revealed that it could only collect Rs 100.13 crore against a target of Rs 238.90 crore from holding tax between March and September.

Moreover, the BMC is yet to implement the property tax system that could boost revenue collection. "We have started mapping the holdings and recently served notices to defaulters to pay their dues by March. We hope that we will perform better in the coming fiscal. We are doing well in other parameters," said a BMC official.