Smart cities selection not discriminatory: Government

NEW DELHI: Government today rebuffed charges that the selection of smart cities in the country was discriminatory and said it was done through an independent process by national and international panels.

"There is no discrimination in the selection process. The state governments have selected the cities and given their recommendations which the central government has accepted."

"The first year will have 20 smart cities, the second year 40 and the third also 40. Which will be among the first 20 smart cities, six international and national teams have decided and made the selection through set parameters and given marks accordingly," Urban Development Minister M Venkaih Naidu told the Rajya Sabha.

Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu (Cong) suggested that the future selection of smart cities be done without any discrimination and political considerations while pointing out that he, as a public representative from Jharkhand, was not consulted at all for the selection of smart cities in the state.

Naidu in his written reply said, "the selection of areas (area-based development) is done by the potential smart city proposals submitted by the cities, it is seen that the cities used a combination of criteria for selecting areas such as economic activity, land use, land monetisation and location of heritage and tourism areas. The selection has also involved citizen consultations, meetings with public representatives, desk research, analysis etc."

Naidu added that in the first stage of the competition, 98 potential smart cities were selected based on recommendations of state governments on objective criteria.

"In stage 2, smart city proposals were evaluated by a panel of experts on the basis of set criteria given in smart cities mission statement and guidelines."

"The scoring was done impartially and 20 top scoring cities have been selected for funding in the current financial year (2015-16). The smart cities mission statement and guidelines are the scoring of 97 cities available on the mission's website," he said.