Move over Calcutta and Salt Lake. The civic pride of place has gone to Kanchrapara and Bally, the new examples to be showcased before the 120-odd municipalities of the state.

The municipal affairs and urban development department will recount the success stories of the two civic bodies at a meeting of all municipal chairpersons at Writers? Buildings on Tuesday.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will attend the meeting.

Kanchrapara has earned kudos for its solid waste management model, while Bally?s achievement lies in its geographical information system (GIS)-based governance.

?The success of both municipalities is a lesson for the others,? said municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya.

?One should visit Kanchrapara and see how clean the town is. With a high degree of participation from the public, the civic authorities have totally decentralised the solid waste collection,? elaborated Bhattacharya.

In sharp contrast, the minister had recently blasted the solid waste management in Salt Lake and even called the township the most polluted in the state.

The Kanchrapara model entails door-to-door collection of solid waste. Every family has been given two buckets ? for storing biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste ? by the ward-based solid waste management committee.

Every morning, workers appointed by the committee collect the waste from households and dump them at a designated site.

The committee maintains the entire cost of the programme from the amount it collects from residents. Households below the poverty line pay Rs 5 each a month and those above the poverty line Rs 10 each. ?Families extremely poor don?t have to pay anything,? said Asim Bhattacharya, vice-chairman of the Kanchrapara municipality.

Decentralisation is the USP of the Bally municipality, too.

?With the help of GIS technology, revenue collection has been computerised and decentralised,? explained Tapas Ghatak, GIS expert of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority.

?Another unique achievement of Bally is the preparation of a high-resolution satellite map of the town. The funds for the project came from Parliament member Swadesh Chakrabarty,? Ghatak added.

More funds for GIS usage will flow from the Department for International Development-backed Calcutta Urban Services for the Poor project.