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| Five years since announcement, Smart City project remains untraceable | | Not even 1% funds utilized on ground | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 7: Five years are about to pass when Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised smart city for Jammu. However, till date the project continues to remain untraceable in government records.
On November 7, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sanctioned a whooping Rs 80K crore package for Jammu and Kashmir’s various developmental projects.
Out of the total sanctioned amount, Rs 500 crore each were sanctioned for smart cities in Jammu as well as in Srinagar. However, as five years are about to pass, as per the official documents, not even one percent of the funds have been utilised on ground- reflecting that the smart city promise was a big joke done to the people of the state. If sources within the government are to be believed, the Smart City proposal was dumped by the government and there were least measures being taken to get the vital project out from the cold storage.
The central government said official sources, recently sought the status report of the smart city proposal and when the dismal progress was found, the JK administration was censured over the inordinate delay being done so far. “There were political considerations in place in the past. The PDP BJP regime was non- seriousness over making the project a success story and give people all the facilities they deserve in a smart city. Unfortunately, not even a single lane was tuned into a smarter one, leave alone turning a capital in its entirety smart,” rues an official who wished not to be named.
Pertinently, the then State Government vide Order No.1081-GAD dated August 21, 2017 constituted Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) as Companies Limited by shares named as Jammu Smart City Limited and Srinagar Smart City Limited under the Companies Act, 2013 with an authorized share capital of Rs 10 lakh, equity share of Rs 10 each and paid-up capital of Rs 10 lakh for both the companies for the implementation of smart city development projects.
“It is ironic to find that the non seriousness of the government has led to the shelving of such an important project in Jammu and Kashmir. It should have been implemented long time ago. It goes beyond the reach of reason that till date, there has been no forward movement witnessed in this regard,” said an official associated earlier with the development of the project.
Earlier, reports had come to the fore that out of Rs 30757 crore allotted to the Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory in the Union Budget of 2020-21, only Rs 3678 crore will be spent on development projects. And a majority of the chunk will be spent on salaries and perks of the government employees. It raised the apprehensions that the vital developmental projects like Smart city will be dumped for now. |
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