UT First Bidder for Smart City: Venkaiah Naidu
PUDUCHERRY:In less than a month since the Smart City Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Puducherry has received the first nomination by the Union Ministry of Urban Development, clearing all confusion with regard to Puducherry’s inclusion in the project. The Government of the Union Territory of Puducherry has nominated its capital city for inclusion in the 100 Smart Cities Mission launched on June 25, according to a release from the Press Information Bureau (PIB).
Chief Secretary to the Government of Puducherry has forwarded the nomination along with all the forms and documents including details of evaluation of all the five urban local bodies (ULBs) in the UT as required in the Stage-1 of ‘City Challenge’ competition. These ULBs included the municipalities at Puducherry, Oulgaret, Kariakal, Mahe and Yanam.
The High Powered Steering Committee (HPSC) constituted as per the Mission Guidelines and headed by Chief Secretary has overseen the process of first stage intra-state competition and sent its recommendations to the Union Urban Development Ministry.
The Urban Development Ministry noted that Puducherry, which has a population of 6,57,209 has done well in respect of several Stage-1 evaluation criteria and scored 75 of the possible 100 marks. HPSC has reported that Puducherry Municipal Corporation achieved 18 per cent improvement in provision of household latrines since 2011.
Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu complimented the UT Government for being the first to send Smart City nomination and urged Chief Minister N Rangaswamy to keep up the momentum. As per the criteria for assigning Smart City slots for each State and UT based on equal weightage for urban population and number of urban local bodies and to ensure geographical equity, the UT has been assigned one slot under Smart City Mission, observed the Ministry.