Bhubaneswar, July 9: The civic body today decided to submit its application to the state government in contention for the smart city status on July 15.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation called a special session of its council to explain various criteria for a smart city, including the people's participation, to its councillors.

"The smart city norm needs collection of internally generated revenue - taxes, charges and user fees, and when the state government will forward the city's case to the urban development ministry, 10 marks will be under this head out of the total score of 100. So, we wanted our councillors to convince the people to pay for the civic services," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar said: "Collection of user fees for garbage collection, drinking water supply to all pockets and management of loss of pipe water are some core areas, where we wanted to discuss issues with the people's representatives. According to the norms, the council also adopted a motion to be in the smart city challenge."

The mayor said that loss of water from daily supply remained a major concern.