Towards ''smart cities''

THIRTY more cities have been added to the list of “smart cities”, taking the number to 90. The fresh list includes Shimla, Jammu, Srinagar and Dehradun from this region. Inclusion in the list does not in itself mean an automatic grant of funds, improvement in living conditions or a better delivery of services. Barring a handful of success stories from cities like Pune, Surat and Jaipur, failure or tardy progress is the norm. Instead of releasing funds, politicians add to the burden of municipalities by regularising illegal colonies. 

The Centre has floated a Rs 50,000-crore Smart Cities Mission to develop 100 smart cities in five years. Under the mission, the rest of the money has to come from the private sector and the states. It requires the levy of user charges and empowerment of municipalities. Private sector participation can happen only if the return on capital invested is adequate. State governments are reluctant to devolve more powers and funds to the local bodies which stand debilitated after the abolition of octroi. Central financial support under the JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission-2005-14) was contingent on both the state government and the urban local bodies committing to specific reforms in urban planning, finance and management.  Amrut (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation), a successor of the JNNURM, has also made funding conditional on reforms.

Besides the dithering on reforms, poor governance and politics of populism have come in the way of cities turning “smart”. Punjab is a case in point. Leave aside giving more funds to the local bodies or contributing a matching grant to avail Central funds, the previous Akali Dal-BJP government diverted funds meant for developing Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana as "smart cities" to finance its populist schemes ahead of the elections. As a BJP minister at the Centre, Venkaiah Naidu, has pointed out, the Badal government did not hire experts/professionals for the local bodies as part of the Smart Cities Mission even though the Centre was to provide money for that. Whether things would change with a change in the regime remains to be seen.