The Hindu 02.09.2016
TN moving to second stage of Smart Cities plan: Venkaiah
Centre to release list of 40 more cities by end of the month
EXCHANGE OF IDEAS:Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu
flanked by Secretary for Higher Education in the Union HRD Ministry
Vinay Sheel Oberoi (left) and IIT Madras Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi at
the Engineers Conclave 2016 in Chennai on Thursday.— PHOTO: K.V.
SRINIVASAN
Since Tamil Nadu “is one of the good performing States”
the State is moving to the second stage of the Smart cities plan in the
coming weeks, said Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu
said on Thursday.
At the inauguration of the
three-day engineers’ conclave at the Indian Institute of
Technology–Madras, Mr. Naidu said his Ministry would release a list of
40 more cities selected for the programme by month-end. The Ministry is
also expected to add more cities to the heritage city list.
Mr.
Naidu said Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had sought heritage status for
Srirangam town, but refused to divulge details about which cities had
made the cut to the smart cities list or to the heritage list.
He
gave the example of Hyderabad, which, by digitising records, had
increased its revenue from Rs. 765 crore to Rs.1,035 crore, without
increasing taxes.
The 14th Planning Commission had
approved Rs. 78,293 crore for 33 smart cities and this helped to
incentivise performance of the cities. This year, good performers could
expect Rs. 400 crore from the Central government, he added.
Mr.
Naidu urged engineers to come up with novel ideas to rejuvenate cities,
pointing out that lack of attention to infrastructure had led to
flooding of Chennai, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Encroachment problem
“In
Chennai, during my visit to flood-affected areas, everyone was talking
about encroachments. The present and former Chief Ministers have come up
with good, innovating housing schemes to relocate people living along
the Cooum banks. As Urban Development Minister, I am concerned with the
situation in all the cities. Engineers may come up with good plans, but
if politicians do not implement them or if they do not remove the
encroachment, no plan will succeed,” he said.