Jalandhar: Projects under Smart City Mission in limelight all for wrong reasons

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

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Jalandhar, January 9

Smart city projects have always hogged the limelight for all the wrong reasons in Jalandhar. Most of the projects have remained mired in controversies. Strangely, there is hardly any project that has been completed in the last several years under the Smart City initiative. Some projects didn’t even get off the ground, some started but stopped midway, while work on the rest are going on at a snail’s pace. However, one thing that is common to these projects is ‘scam allegations’.

It was in September 2016 when Jalandhar found its name on the list released by the Central Government under the Smart City Mission. There was a lot of excitement about Jalandhar being developed as ‘Smart City’ as it had somehow managed to secure a spot under the big-ticket project.

But all the praises and commendations are gradually being replaced by criticism and condemnation. Every project is there mostly on paper, and there is nothing much on the ground. Be it the bio-mining project, surface water project, LED project, beautification of chowks, smart roads or any other, not even a single project has been completed. Apart from this, the allegations of scams worth crores and involvement of Smart City officials in corruption have maligned the image of the Municipal Corporation.

BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill had recently urged Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal to order a CBI inquiry into the “misappropriation” of Central funds sent to the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation for the Smart City project. In a statement, Shergill had alleged that a “whopping” Rs 1,000 crore grant was sent by the Union Government to the Jalandhar MC through the Punjab Government but certain MC officials, contractors and politicians indulged in huge embezzlement of these funds through collusion in this mega corruption scam,” he asserted.

Now, as per the information, Union Law Minister Meghwal has also sent a letter to Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to look into the matter.