Centre’s Smart City Mission: All talk, no action

In funding, Centre failed to keep its promise since as per the Mission, the Union govt was required to contribute Rs 100 crore for each city for five years totalling Rs 500 crore each

Hyderabad: The much-hyped Smart City Mission, launched by the BJP government at the Centre in 2015-16 to substantially upgrade 100 cities across the nation, seems to have lost its sheen, at least in the case of Warangal and Karimnagar, the two cities from Telangana selected under the mission.

The reasons are not far to seek – a partisan government keeping the parameters and priorities that go into the selection of cities for the Mission literally under wraps and giving the go-by to non-BJP-ruled States when it comes to actual funding.

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To what lengths the BJP government at the Centre can go to stifle growth of progressive States like Telangana can be illustrated best by the funding the new State received from the Union government for Warangal and Karimnagar. These cities, as per the mission objectives, should well have been on the path of achieving the status of a green and livable city, clean, inclusive, modern, safe and citizen-friendly besides being well-governed.

Despite all efforts by the TRS government to fast-track development of these two cities, the Centre’s apathy in the form of low funding, deliberate at that, has put the brakes on projects taken up under the mission.

Right from the start, the Centre’s intentions were clear, going by the number of cities selected in BJP-ruled States and its step-motherly attitude to the few that were selected in non-BJP-ruled States. Predictably, priority in selection was given to States ruled by the BJP and its friendly-parties such as that 12 cities from Tamil Nadu, 10 from Maharashtra (then ruled by BJP), six from Karnataka, four from Andhra Pradesh and two each from Kerala and Telangana.

Coming to the funding, the Centre failed to keep its promise since as per the Mission, the Union government was required to contribute Rs 100 crore for each city for five years totalling Rs 500 crore each. While Greater Warangal was selected under the Mission in the first year, Karimnagar came into the picture in 2016-17 replacing Greater Hyderabad following a request from the State government.

As per norms, the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation was entitled to receive Rs 500 crore from the Centre over a five-year period till 2019-20 while the Karimnagar Municipal Corporation should have received Rs 400 crore till 2019-20 over the four-year period.

In reality, however, the Centre sanctioned a mere Rs 196 crore each over the past five years and dusted its hands off subsequently. While the GWMC received the Rs 196 crore, the Karimnagar Municipal Corporation has only received Rs 110 crore of the sanctioned Rs 196 crore so far. A ‘smart’ move indeed by the BJP government to show the TRS government in poor light!

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