PM Modi wants ‘smart cities’ to take up doable items

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has simple prescriptions for the ambitious smart cities project to take off. He wants designated cities, after their identification, to take up some easily doable items and a few smart solutions rather than taking up a mega wish list as it was earlier envisaged in the draft concept note.

Sources said the PM also wants such cities to identify people living below poverty line ( BPL) and unemployed so that targets for poverty alleviation and unemployment can be identified. Last month, Modi had taken a detailed presentation on his flagship scheme. Following his direction, the urban development ministry has called a meeting of state UD secretaries this week to finalize the scheme.

In fact, some state governments had earlier pointed out how under this scheme, urban local bodies ( ULBs) should not be made to undertake all tasks at one go since they lack "capacity" to implement. The host of such tasks includes IT-based solutions, 24x7 power and water supply, total sanitation, quality public transport and effective waste management.

"While these are essential, taking a few doable initiatives will build confidence of municipal bodies and will encourage and enable them to take up more such initiatives," said a source. Government has set a target of developing 100 smart cities.

TOI has learnt Modi was of the view that besides "competition" among cities to get the 'smart' tag, other criteria should include total population, initiatives taken by the ULBs and municipal reforms, record of tax collection and waste management. He had also said milestones should be fixed, which municipal bodies have to meet, in order to get financial assistance from the Centre.

The PM had also said that the identified cities should develop islands for tourist attraction and these must implement municipal reforms in a time-bound manner.

Government sources said the PM was of the opinion that the Centre should set up model regulations which ULBs can adopt for better performance and to generate more revenue. "Since the success of such a mammoth task is possible only when cities learn from each other, there was a suggestion to have weekly e-news of each identified city for dissemination of best practices," an official said.