Ahluwalia, Goyal share vision

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 22

With campaigning for the Panchkula Municipal Corporation elections entering its last phase, one thing that top contenders from the BJP and the Congress don’t forget to mention wherever they go for seeking votes is their vision for Panchkula as “sapnon ka shehar” or Smart City.

If we go by the ‘Smart Cities Mission’ of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, “there is no universally accepted definition of a smart city. It means different things to different people. The conceptualisation of Smart City, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents.

The government, however, has laid down core infrastructure elements under the Smart Cities Mission that makes a city smart. This correspondent spoke to BJP’s Kulbhushan Goyal and Congress’ Upinder Kaur Ahluwalia about their views and this is what they have to say.