Pune makes it to list of potential smart cities, sans PCMC

The commissioner has sought ideas from citizens to make Pune a smart city. “There is a need to devise an effective citizen-engagement process. That’s got to be the foundation of our smart city proposal formulation process,” added Kumar.

[related-post]

The elected representatives also expressed happiness over the PMC being included in the list of potential smart cities as BJP leader Ganesh Bidkar discussed it at the beginning of the general body meeting.

Deputy Mayor Ulhas Bagul said all party corporators of the PMC had passed a resolution in the previous general body meeting, urging the state and Union governments to consider PMC as an individual entity and not to club it with the PCMC. “The resolution was passed and was sent immediately to the Union government. It seems to have made the Union government not consider the state government stand to club the PMC and the PCMC,” he added.

City BJP chief and MP Anil Shirole said he had fulfilled the assurance given during elections that he would work towards ensuring Pune was in the list of 100 cities. “It is a proud moment for all citizens. Now, I would make efforts to make Pune a leading smart city in the country,”
he said.

Earlier, the BJP had been under criticism after the BJP-led state government had pushed the PMC and the PCMC as a single entity in the 10 cities that they proposed to the Union government to be included in the smart city list.

The ruling NCP and Congress, alongwith the MNS, had taken the local BJP to task, saying the party after coming to power was ill-treating Pune citizens despite having elected all BJP candidates from the eight Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat from the city.

While justifying its move to club the two civic bodies for the smart city project, the government had said that it would ensure proper development of the city as the PMC and the PCMC had similar civic issues.

Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had said the BJP was cheating the citizens of Pune by considering the PMC and the PCMC as a single unit in the smart city list.