NDMC in Centre’s ‘Smart City’ list, others miss deadline

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The Centre will provide Rs 48,000 crore in funds for each Smart City so that the states can improve their infrastructure and service delivery through application of better technology and e-governance.

The NDMC area — comprising Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House, Supreme Court, North and South Blocks and buildings abutting Central Vista and all the diplomatic missions — has pipped the three municipal corporations of Delhi (MCD) to the post as it was the only civic body to send its ‘score card’ to the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) before the July 31 deadline.

“In a series of meetings, it was felt that the North and East MCDs needed to be developed as smart cities, but their applications were not received. The name of Shahjahanabad was also discussed in these meetings as some senior officials felt it was more in need of development than Lutyen’s Delhi, which has the best facilities of all civic bodies,” said a government official.

North Delhi Mayor PK Gupta claimed that the civic body had sent the score card on time, “but it was sent back to us, and we were asked to make some corrections. I have asked that the requisite corrections be made and the score card sent back to the ministry.”

The matter was taken up by a high-power selection committee (HPSC), under the Delhi chief secretary, comprising secretaries of urban development, finance and planning departments.

According to sources, in a presentation to the MoUD, the Delhi government stated, “We got only one proposal (for smart city) from the NDMC. A proposal was placed directly to the MoUD by the South MCD, but after the deadline”.

The 15-part score card required the applying civic body to state, among others, its internally generated revenues, operable online grievance system, levy in compensatory penalty for delay in services, percentage of operation and maintenance cost of water supply.