Jubilation as Dharamsala declared as smart city

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 27

Residents of Dharamsala today rejoiced after the town was declared under the smart city project by the Centre. Dharamsala is the only town that has been selected from Himachal.

Minister for Town and Country Planning Sudhir Sharma, who represents Dharamsala constituency and is being credited for getting the town selected under the scheme, said the move would bring funds for its development. He said Dharamsala had been selected in the category of cities having less than 1 lakh population. Other cities such as Shimla would get adequate funds under the Amrut city scheme of the union government.

Under the smart city scheme, the first priority would be to improve the drinking water supply in the town and creating an e-governance system for redressing the complaints of citizens and providing them online services. Creating more parking places and decongesting the town of traffic jams would also be the priority. Ram Kumar, a retired government official, said: “We are happy that Dharamsala has been selected under the scheme. It will give Dharamsala its due. It is one of the oldest planned towns of Himachal. We hope that it will get its due.”

Neresh Sharma, a senior lecturer in government college and resident of the town, said Dharamsala was known internationally due to the presence of the Dalai Lama here. However, the town lacked basic amenities such as proper sewerage system and had narrow lanes. Now that the city had been selected under the Smart City scheme, it would get adequate funds and basic amenities would be provided to citizens. He said Sudhir Sharma, who is also the local MLA ,should be given all credit for bringing the town under the scheme.