Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 27: Jammu and Srinagar were among 11 capital cities in the country, which couldn’t be nominated for Centre Government’s prestigious Smart City project, announced today in New Delhi by Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu. The Centre has, however, kept one slot of Smart City vacant for Jammu and Kashmir as it announced only 98 proposed Smart Cities today. One City was left for Uttar Pradesh.
Jammu and Srinagar are rotational capital cities of Jammu and Kashmir, which serve as seat of the Government for six months each (Jammu during winter and Srinagar in summer as those at the helm of affairs want to enjoy cozy weather throughout the year, a practice going on since the time of Maharaja’s rule).
“While Jammu and Srinagar cities couldn’t be nominated as the Centre had allotted only one Smart City to Jammu and Kashmir from out of total 100 in the country but the State Government has proposed two keeping in view the regional balances in the State, which had recently forced the Centre to grant one additional All India Institute of Medical Sciences to the State,’’ official sources said.
Jammu and Kashmir is only State in the country, which has two capital cities, they pointed out.
Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, nine other capital cities that could not be nominated for Smart City development were Patna, Itanagar, Shimla, Bangalore, Daman, Thiruvananthapuram, Puducherry, Gangtok and Kohima as they hadn’t been recommended by the respective State Governments. The Centre had left the decision to the States for nomination of Smart Cities after allotting number to them, the highest being 13 to Uttar Pradesh.
Deputy Chief Minister and Incharge Housing and Urban Development Department Dr Nirmal Singh told the Excelsior that since both Jammu and Srinagar serve as capitals to the State for six months each, the State Government had nominated both of them as Smart Cities. Moreover, he said, keeping in view the geographical conditions and maintain regional balances, the State needs two Smart Cities.
“We have taken up the issue with Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu. I have personally met him. Our Members of Parliament have also called on him. In future also, we will meet Naidu and stress for declaration of both Jammu and Srinagar as Smart Cities,’’ Dr Singh said expressing hope that the Centre would concede demand of the State and declare both capital cities as Smart Cities.
The Deputy Chief Minister said even if there were some drawbacks in the criteria laid down by the Centre for declaration of Smart Cities, the Government of India would relax it and declare both capitals as Smart Cities for their development.
Despite allotment of one Smart City in the total of 100, the Jammu and Kashmir Government had recommended two capital cities Jammu and Srinagar with 45 points each for declaration as Smart Cities. Similarly, sources said, Meerut and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh were tied with equal points. In view of this, the Centre selected 98 Smart Cities and left one City each vacant for Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh.
Sources pointed out that if the Centre sticks to its initial proposal of developing 100 Smart Cities, the Jammu and Kashmir will not get more than one but if the Government relaxed the numbers, the J&K can get both the capitals declared as Smart Cities.
Dr Nirmal Singh said he along with other Ministers, MPs and prominent leaders will shortly meet Naidu and other Central Government representatives and stress upon them to declare both capital cities as Smart Cities in relaxation of criteria.
Asked when the names of the remaining two cities will be decided, Naidu told press conference in New Delhi that it will be done in due course.
PTI adds from New Delhi:
There are about 12 crore people in the country who will be the direct beneficiaries of the Smart City project.
The total population of these proposed 98 Smart Cities is about 12 crore accounting for 35 per cent of country’s total urban population as per the 2011 census, Naidu said.
As per the profile of the selected cities, 35 cities and towns have a population between one and five lakh. There are 21 cities with population ranging between five and 10 lakh.
25 cities have population of above 10 lakh and below 25 lakh. A set of 5 cities are in the population range of 25 to 50 lakhs.
Four cities – Chennai, Greater Hyderabad, Greater Mumbai and Ahmedabad have population of about above 50 lakh each.
Out of 98 cities, 24 are capital cities, another 24 are business and industrial centres, 18 are of cultural and tourism importance, 5 are port cities, and 3 being education and health care hubs.
The cities which have population of one lakh and below but figure in the list are Silvassa, Diu, Kavaratti, Pasighat in Arunachal and Namchi in Sikkim.
Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar have found place in the list from Punjab while Bhubaneswar and Rourkela from Odisha bagged the slots.
From Rajasthan besides Ajmer, pink city Jaipur along with Udaipur and Kota find place in the list.
Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot are among six cities from Gujarat that got the nod.
Ranchi and Dharamshala will represent Jharkhand and Himachal respectively in the list.
Karnal and Faridabad from Haryana and Kochi from Kerala are in the coveted list released by the Centre.
Biharsharif, Bhagalpur and Muzafarpur from Bihar while Vishakhapatnam, Tirupati and Kakinada from Andhra have also found place in the list.
Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Bareilly, Aligarh, Jhansi, Saharanpur are among 12 cities selected in UP for the Smart City project.
However, Patna, Bangaluru and Mumbai are not in the list.
“It is the States, which have sent the names of the cities to be included in the project. Names of Patna and Bangalore were not proposed by their respective States. As far as Mumbai is concerned, Maharashtra has proposed Navi Mumbai for that purpose,” Naidu said.
While UP has maximum of 13 cities, followed by 12 by Tamil Nadu and 10 by Maharashtra to be developed as Smart Cities, Madhya Pradesh has seven cities in the project.
Karnataka and Gujarat have six cities each while Bihar and Andhra have three each and rest of the states have two and one cities respectively in the project.
All Union Territories, including Delhi, have found place in the list.
Moradabad, Solapur, Amritsar, Rourkela, Durgapur and Ajmer also figure in the list of 98 cities.
The next stage is the choosing 20 cities in the first lot by end of the year and the next two years 40 cities each will be selected for receiving Central funding of Rs 500 crore spread over the coming five years.
Naidu said “The first stage of competition was entirely conducted by the States and UTs only with little role for the Union Urban Development Ministry.”
Centre will release Rs 2 crore for each of the 98 cities in the next couple of days for preparation of Smart City plans.
Our Ministry has drawn up region wise panels of reputed agencies for assisting the cities to prepare Smart City plans, he said.
For the selection of 20 cities, the broad criteria will be city vision and strategy, cost effectiveness, credibility of implementation and innovation.
Naidu said those cities which are not selected in the first round can again participate in the second and third round by improving their performances.
Even States can nominate new names after elimination of some cities in the final round of selection, he said.
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