Preparation on for Smart City action plan in Itagar

From our correspondent

Itagar, October 23: The countdown to be among the top 20 cities, to be funded under the first phase of the Smart City Mission has already begun. On August 27 last, the union ministry of urban development declared nomition of 98 cities for the project. Preparations are in full swing in Pasighat town as all stakeholders are spending sleepless nights to win the race. Maximum participation of the people is needed in order to get a good score, said municipal executive officer, Deepak Shinde. “We are competing against cities like Mumbai, Pune, Agra, Durgapur etc, where there is huge participation of masses,” he said adding that they will score due to proper internet connectivity, regular power supply etc.

He said Pasighat will face a tough challenge, in terms of mass participation in the online activities on the desigted website http://mygov.in. Highlighting importance of public participation, he said, the total population of cities like Mumbai, Pune is around 1.5 crore plus. Out of this, even if 1.5 lakh people participate in the online activities, it would come to around 1 percent of the total population. Whereas in our case, even if 500 participate out of around 25,000 population, it will be around 2 percent, leaving bigger cities behind, as counting will be done based on number of participation by total population, he added.

Shinde, who played a major role in the selection of Pasighat for the project, said the offline preparations are going on in full swing and that the department and the consultancy firm is leaving no stone unturned. He said people from across the country can participate in the process and student from the community studying in far-off places must also participate. The centre has earmarked Rs 48,000 crore for development of 98 cities to be developed as smart cities. Each smart city would get a Central assistance of Rs 100 crore per year for five years.

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