A day after the Union Government unveiled a list of 96 Smart Cities in the country, the High Court of Odisha on Friday issued notices to the Centre and the State Governments over a PIl in which it has been alleged that the millennium city of Cuttack has been left out from the list in a discriminatory manner.
A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice DH Waghela issued notices to the Union Urban Development Secretary, Smart City Mission Director and the Odisha Chief Secretary, who is also the Chairman of the State-level high powered steering committee on smart cities, from among the 11 respondents named in the PIl. The matter has been posted for next hearing on September 7.
High Court Bar Association president Dr Ashok Mohapatra, who is also the Chairman of the Cuttack Smart City Action Committee has filed the PIl alleging that Cuttack has been left out from the list of the ambitious project by a faulty evaluation of its potentiality by the State-level steering committee.
“On the basis of the parameters set to assess the urban local bodies in the State, Cuttack’s potentialities have not been properly assessed and it was placed at third position after Bhubaneswar and Rourkela,” Mohapatra said, adding that the Union Government had invited names of only two cities from the State to be accorded as smart cities.
Discussing the potentialities of the city on the basis of the Government of India guidelines, the petition pointed out that Cuttack city should have been placed at the top from among the civic bodies in the State to be considered as a Smart City.
Urging to quash the State Government’s July 28, 2015 recommendation in which Cuttack has been placed at third position for consideration of the Smart Cities in the State, the petition has urged the High Court to pass necessary orders in the matter.