Hitting out at the opposition parties, the BJP on Friday blamed them for inciting public by spreading lies that the government denied smart cities to Jammu and Kashmir.
The party also assured that the development of Smart Cities by the Centre will be done in phases and Jammu and Kashmir has not been left out.
“The local parties and its defeated political leaders are resorting disinformation campaign of denial of Smart Cities to J&K and are inciting the public by spreading lies”, BJP State-spokesperson, Jammu and Kashmir, Arun Gupta said on Friday.
It may be recalled that Jammu and Kashmir national Panthers Party (JKNPP), Congress and NC had hit out at BJP for failure to grant J&K two smart cities. JKNPP also held protest demonstration over the issue.
On the gross misinformation being spread over the topic of Smart Cities, Mr. Gupta said, “some politicos, who are out of power now in Jammu, have never worked for the betterment of state when they were in power. Now, when they have nothing useful to do, they are spreading misinformation without guilt just to incite anger of the public”.
Throwing light on the basic requirements for grant of a Smart City, Mr. Gupta elaborated, “it is imperative that the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir understand the concept of Smart City. There are various parameters that should originally exist at baseline in the least for its grant“.
Elaborating his point, Mr. Gupta said “some of these basic requirements are adequate water supply, assured electricity supply, sanitation including solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, very affordable housing, especially for the poor, robust IT connectivity and digitalization, good governance, sustainable environment, safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, and last health and education.”
“The citizens of J&K must understand that grant of Smart City and its development by the centre will be done in phase manner”, he said.
Mr. Gupta said “in the first phase, only twenty chosen cities would be made a model for the cities that fall in the next two phases. Gaining knowledge from these model cities, there will further be a chance for Jammu and Srinagar to compete,” the state-spokesperson clarified.
Mr. Gupta expressed his displeasure with the machinations of the out of power local political parties and remarked that the previous governments here was incompetent and without a vision.
“What these politicians of opposition parties are trying to destabilise the government. They are spreading lies by saying that J&K did not even get one smart city when this is a phased process”, he added.
“By spreading lies they are doing a disservice to both the public and the nation. They do not realize that they lose credibility every time their lies are caught. They should work for development and not against it,” Mr. Gupta said.
