New Delhi: On Wednesday, Congress labelled the 'Smart cities' projects announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a 'flop’. According to the Congress, only seven per cent of funds have been allocated so far for the project.
AICC Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala while addressing the reporters in national capital said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi's project to built 100 smart cities is a flop. Only seven per cent of the funds have been allocated to the Rs two lakh crore project. What is shocking is that going by the rate at which the project is progressing, nearly 52 years will be needed to complete the project.”
Talking about Varanasi, Randeep stated that under the ‘smart city’ project, the city was proposed to be converted into Kyoto, a city in Japan. However only 8.6% of money has been allocated to Varanasi. Once Japan capital, Kyoto is famous for its numerous classical Buddhist temples, as well as gardens, imperial palaces. ''The Smart city mission of PM has completely collapsed in five years. Modiji's promise to create 100 smart cities has turned out to be a 'hollow' one.”
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Citing about Kashi Mr Surjewala said that against the syipulated amount Rs 2267 cr required for the building of the smart city, only 8.63 per cent has been allocated. 10 of the smart cities namely: Shillong, Dindigul, Amravati, Greter Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Rae Bareli, Rampur, Durgapur and Haldia (West Bengal) were allocated only Rs two crore each in the last five years. The Union territory of Chandigarh got just 4 per cent of the promised Rs 6800 crore. According to him, the smart city of Delhi got just six per cent of Rs 2,998 crore.