Shimla off smart city list, residents vent anger

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 27

The news of exclusion of Shimla from the smart city list has sparked anger of residents here as all their pleas to include it on the list bore no fruit. Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu today released the list of first 100 smart cities that includes Dharamsala.

“It is shocking that the ministry contradicted its own selection criteria by excluding Shimla, the country’s oldest municipality that remained the summer capital of former British Raj for more than 100 years”, said Brig Daleep Chajta (retd), a social activist here.

“Dharamsala, a small cantonment town, thrives on Tibetans’ donation. Its inclusion is a purely political decision”, he said. “Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is silent as Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma is his main supporter and represents Dharamsala”, added Brig Chajta, who served in Dharamsala for about two years before his retirement. Because of petty politics, the BJP at the Centre and the Congress-led state government have lost an opportunity to save Shimla from chaos because of its limited infrastructure”, he said.

“Now the next logical step, if they want, to save Shimla is that the government should shift the tate capital from Shimla as its infrastructure has collapsed”, he said.

Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan and Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar said both Congress and BJP played politics and the state Urban Development Minister fudged the data on various selection parameters. “We will explore all options. It is not Shimla or Dharamsala, but it is a question of seeking justice without political bias”, said Chauhan.

Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar said they would not hesitate to move the High Court to seek justice as it was a matter of grant of Rs 500 crore for the smart city infrastructure development, which had been denied to residents.