Nitish seeks inclusion of Patna in Smart City Mission

Perturbed over Patna not figuring in the list of 100 Smart Cities, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar  on Wednesday met Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and discussed various issues related to urban development in the state.

Kumar insisted on factoring in parameters such as regional imbalance, existing gaps in institutional capabilities and variation in current level of development while selecting cities under the Smart City Mission.

Noting that state capital Patna was not shortlisted for inclusion in Smart City Mission, Kumar suggested that all such state capitals should be given another opportunity to compete for selection in the Centre’s ambitious project.

“There is no political consideration at all...Every state is there (in the list)...If you have to be in the first 20, you have to work hard,” Naidu said, adding that the selection of 20 smart cities was made through a competition.

“My own town is not there. The Home Minister’s town is also not there. The External Affairs Minister’s town is not there…Even, the Finance Minister’s town does not figure in the list. Where is the question of political discrimination?” Naidu asked, while addressing the India Investment Summit on Wednesday.

Earlier, Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had accused the Centre of being biased against Bihar. However, the Centre countered the allegation by saying that there has been no “political discrimination” in the selection of first 20 smart cities.

Kumar and Yadav had attacked the Centre for not selecting any city of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for development in the first list of Smart Cities. “Bihar and UP gave 104 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP to form its government at the Centre, but they are so ehsaan pharamosh (ungrateful) that no city of the two states figures in the list of 20 smart cities,” Kumar had said.

Bihar’s only two cities – Muzaffarpur and Biharsharif – have been shortlisted in list of 100 cities, which will be developed as Smart Cities under the Centre’s ambitious project.

Apart from Bhubaneshwar, the cities in the first batch are Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bhopal, NDMC area of Delhi, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Jabalpur, Visakhapatnam, Solapur, Davanagere, Indore, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belagavi, Udaipur, Guwahati and Ludhiana.

Altogether 100 cities are to be developed into Smart Cities as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious programme. For this, the Centre has earmarked Rs 48,000 crore and the states will have to contribute an equal amount.

Under the programme, each selected city will be given Rs 500 crore over a period of five years by the Centre with the respective states expected to make the matching contribution.