Smart city is where the
poor get justice
Our Government has a vision of developing 100
smart cities as satellite towns of larger cities by modernizing the existing
mid-sized cities.
Smart Cities Awas Yojna Mission was launched by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015. A total of ₹980 billion (US$15
billion) has been approved by the Indian Cabinet for development of 100 smart
cities and rejuvenation of 500 others. ₹48,000 crore (US$7.5 billion) for the
Smart Cities mission and a total funding of ₹50,000 crore (US$7.8 billion) for
the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) has been
approved by the Cabinet.
In the 2014 Union budget of India, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley allocated ₹7,016 crore (US$1.1 billion) for the 150 smart
cities. However, only ₹9.24 billion (US$140 million) could be spent out of the
allocated amount till February 2015. Hence, the 2015 Union budget of India
allocated only ₹1.43 billion (US$22 million) for the project.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Smart
City Mission is all set to complete two years. The release of clean
city rankings serves to generate
some healthy competition among civic bodies to aspire to a better quality of
life for the citizens they serve. It
was found that smaller cities are smarter than the large metros in the matter
of cleanliness.
But merely creating infrastructure is not enough
to make our cities ‘smart’ or more liveable. There is also a need to solve the city’s
mobility problems and put a dent in its traffic and pollution levels.
Improving urban waste management, or building
bicycle tracks or pushing e-governance are all laudable goals. But no city,
smart or otherwise, can thrive if the poor and the marginalised are excluded.
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