To the dismay of citizens who wanted to take part in the smart city initiative, the proceedings of the third board meeting of the Hubballi Dharwad Smart City Limited (HDSCL), at Bengaluru, were not webcast as promised.
Although all preparations were made for webcasting, the proceedings of the third meeting of the HDSCL board, at hdmc.mrc.gov.in, did not happen as most of the directors were opposed to it. Barring P. Manivannan, chairman of HDSCL, and Mayor of Hubballi-Dharwad D.K. Chavan, the other directors were opposed to webcasting the proceedings.
The netizens of ‘Team Dharwad’ who were waiting to see the live proceedings were left disappointed after they were informed that the webcast was not happening.
Several of them immediately expressed their dismay over the sudden development. Mr. Manivannan, who had mooted the idea, was left with no option as majority of the directors opposed it. “The company directors decided not to webcast the meeting proceedings after two were for and eight were against the idea,” Mr. Manivannan informed. “I’m sorry about it. As non executive chairman, I can’t do much except to go by the majority decision”, he added.
Activist Ottilie Anban Kumar said: “According to the guidelines, citizen participation plays a key role in the smart city project. Really sad that such a progressive idea of streaming it live was not supported. It would have set a wonderful example.”
Citizens like Datt Kulkarni were little moderate. “It is okay as long as our suggestions get discussed and hopefully implemented,” he wrote.
The opposition for webcasting was not immediately known. However, sources revealed that the meeting resolved to consult the Union government on the issue of whether to webcast the proceedings or to upload the video recording of the proceedings subsequently.
Apart from Mr. Manivannan, the board of directors comprises managing directors of KUIDFC, KUWSDB, HESCOM, director of municipal administration, HDMC Commissioner, opposition leader of HDMC, chairpersons of three standing committees and others.
