Nitish laments non-inclusion of Bihar in smart city list

Resuming his public interaction programme, “Janata Ke Darbar Mein Mukhya Mantri”, that lasted over nine hours continuing till late in the evening, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday met over 1,000 complainants.

During the 20-minute meeting, the Chief Minister briefed the Home Minister about the prevailing situation in Bihar and steps taken to check the Maoist violence.

In his two-page letter, Kumar said, the states have been allotted 100 cities based on a formula by giving equal weightage to urban population of the states and the number of statutory towns in the state. He felt that while selecting cities under this mission, parameters like regional imbalance, existing gaps in institutional capabilities and variation in current level of development need to be factored in.

New Delhi, Feb 4:There has been no “political discrimination” in the selection of first 20 smart cities, the Centre said today, amid allegations by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of bias against his State in selection process. Naidu informed Nitish Kumar that a special fast-track competition is being conducted for one top ranked city from each of the 23 states that could not make it to the first list of winners in which Bhagalpur, ranked 65, could participate.

The Government recently announced the first batch of 20 smart cities from 11 States and Delhi. Earlier, 100 cities were selected in which three were from Bihar. “I came here to request finance minister that remaining funds could be released this fiscal and next fiscal”, he said. “The money should be made available during 2015-16 and 2016-17 – the remaining years of the 12th Five-Year Plan so that pending schemes in the state should be completed”, he said.