The much-touted drive to transform Pune into a ‘Smart City’ has come to a halt amid political bickering. The Congress- Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) controlled Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have desisted from giving its assent to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s ‘Smart Cities Mission’ proposal.
The erstwhile allies, backed by the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have put the proposal on the backburner on the pretext that the elected representatives “needed more time” to study the Smart City Plan (SCP).
The corporators alleged they were given the proposal documents “only hours before” the special general body meeting to take a call on the SCP.
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As a consequence, the three parties have proposed to adjourn the meeting till January 4, but the proposal needs to be submitted to the Centre before December 15.
With the parties carrying a majority of 77 versus 33 votes, the bid almost certainly will not reach the Centre before the December deadline, which effectively puts Pune out of the ‘Smart City’ race.
The corporators’ objection stems from their apprehension that the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), the body to be created in each city for the implementation of the ‘Smart City’ mission, will make Pune civic body redundant and infringe into their rights of corporators, apart from ushering in radical privatization.
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On Thursday, Mr Raj Thackeray slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Smart Cities’ vision, dubbing it “a farce” and “a tool that was being to deceive people”.
Pune has been shortlisted among the probable 100 ‘Smart Cities’, of which 20 will eventually make the cut.
Municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar, however, asserted that the Smart Cities Mission proposal would be rolled through despite shilly-shallying on part of the corporators.
Pune to benefit
“I have already written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking for his intervention to direct the general body to take an ‘appropriate’ call on the Smart City proposal by December 14. At the same time, we are trying to allay the corporators’ fears over the SPV and getting them around to a project that will immensely benefit Pune,” said Mr Kumar.
But while Pune’s BJP leadership are understandably chagrined by the opposition’s ‘stymieing’ tactics, activists strongly favour the stance taken by the opposition.
“Elected members have every right to seek more information on the proposal. The entire ‘Smart Cities Mission’ project is dubious with the Centre and State governments clear intending to throw open the field to influential private players who will dominate civic affairs much to the detriment of democratic institution,” said noted Right to Information activist (RTI) Vijay Kumbhar.
Since August this year, the PMC has stepped up its drive towards its mission of transforming the city into a ‘smart’ by collected suggestions from over 125,000 families aimed at gauging the aspirations of Pune’s denizens.