After much flip flop, Shimla, the state capital of Himachal Pradesh, has finally made it to the smart city mission of Government of India (GoI).
The hill city figures in the third list of a batch of 30 cities released by Central government for the smart city mission. Fifty-five cities from across the country had contested for the same out of which only 30 cities were lucky enough to be selected. Shimla will be the second city after Dharamshala in HP to have been picked up for the mission.
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The development brings the long drawn struggle to a conducive end, as there had been initial competition amongst two cities in the state viz a viz Dharamsala (that was previously selected) and Shimla while the names for the smart city was being proposed previously.
Dharamsala had become the first to be selected as smart city in HP, 2016 after it figured in the centre’s first list of 98 cities across India for the ambitious project.
The initial proposal of Dharamsala by state government for the race of smart city permeated into controversy in 2016.
The then Mayor and Deputy Mayor (both from CPI-M) had charged both the incumbent Congress government and the opposition BJP for playing spoil sport in ousting Shimla from the smart city race and had accused the state government of fudging the scores to bring Dharamsala to fore.
After the Urban Development ministry on 27 August, 2015 pushed Dharamsala as front runner for Smart City, the then Mayor, Sanjay Chauhan had even taken the battle to court.
“It is a moment to rejoice as the smart city tag would help better development in Shimla,” said chief minister, Virbhadra Singh.
He said that the state government had submitted its proposal to Ministry of Urban development GoI on 31 March, 2016.
BJP, Shimla legislator, Suresh Bhardwaj hailed the selection and congratulated residents of Shimla for making this endeavour a success despite impediments created by the Congress government and the lethargy of the then CPI-M duo at the helm of affairs in Municipal Corporation. “This is a gift from Prime Minister to the residents of Shimla for reposing faith in BJP in the recently held Municipal Corporation elections," he said.
Former Mayor and CPI-M leader Sanjay Chauhan said, “It is a victory of citizens of Shimla and the Shimla Municipal Corporation. Despite many hurdles from the state and Central government we could make it after a long drawn struggle.”
