Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Sept 20: Both Jammu and Srinagar, the two rotational capital cities of Jammu and Kashmir, didn’t figure in the list of 27 Smart Cities announced today in the Union capital by Housing and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu notwithstanding the sanction of Rs 500 crores for them under Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) worth Rs 80,000 crores.
Naidu today announced third round of a total of 100 Smart Cities Mission to be developed by the Government of India in the country, the concept of which was envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the third round, 27 Smart Cities have been announced after the competition, which included Varanasi, Amritsar and Ajmer among others.
Official sources told the Excelsior that proposed investment in 27 Smart Cities, announced today, would be Rs 66,883 crores. Amritsar scored highest marks among 27 Smart Cities, they said.
With today’s announcement, a total 60 out of 100 Smart Cities have been announced this year while rest 40 will be announced during next 2 years, which means that Jammu and Kashmir would have to wait for announcement of Smart Cities for several more months.
Twenty Smart Cities were announced in January this year followed by 13 in May and 27 today, taking total number to 60.
However, the announcement of 27 Smart Cities left the people of Jammu and Kashmir dejected as none of its two cities, Jammu and Srinagar could find a berth in the list.
The people of Jammu are eagerly awaiting for announcement of Jammu as a Smart City after giving massive mandate to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. But, they were disappointed once again as name of Jammu didn’t figure in the list of Smart Cities.
A number of people rang up the Excelsior and strongly denounced the attitude of Central and State Governments towards Jammu. They said Jammu deserved Smart City and it should have been accorded the status today.
Under the Smart City Mission, each City will receive Central assistance of Rs 200 crores in the first year and Rs 100 crores over the three subsequent financial years, leading to massive development of the City.
When contacted, Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh, Incharge Housing and Urban Development, who is in Leh, told the Excelsior that Jammu and Srinagar were not in the competition in third list of Smart Cities as Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of the two cities were yet to be sent to the Union Urban Development Ministry.
“Hopefully, both Jammu and Srinagar will compete for Smart Cities in the next round, which will take place the next year,” Dr Singh said.
Official sources said the State Government has already sent proposal for declaration of Jammu and Srinagar as two Smart Cities but their DPRs hadn’t been sent, a result of which they were not considered for third round of competition.
The Central Government has kept a provision of Rs 500 crores for two Smart Cities in Rs 80,000 crores worth Prime Minister’s Development Package for Jammu and Kashmir.
Under the Smart City Mission, the Government aims to have 100 smart cities by 2022. The remaining 40 Cities will be picked by 2018.
The residents of the cities which are selected under the Smart City Mission, will enjoy uninterrupted power and water supply, Internet connectivity, e-governance along with quality infrastructure.
With this new batch of 27 cities, the mission has spread to 27 States and only nine States including Jammu and Kashmir are left out. In this round of competition, even Nagaland and Sikkim have made it to the implementation stage of the Mission while Jammu and Kashmir was nowhere near the Mission, sources said.
In the latest round of selection, five cities are from Maharashtra, four each from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, three from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, two each from Punjab, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Nagaland and Sikkim.
Amritsar scored the highest marks while almost half of the shortlisted cities are from NDA-ruled States.
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