Venting protest against the proposed Smart City project that is to come up in a tea estate in Dehradun, scores of Communist Party of India (Marxist) members assembled at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Park on Tuesday and took out a rally to the Collectorate.
They said that Smart City Project has been envisaged to serve the interests of a few political leaders and realtors. The protesters shouted slogans against the Centre and the State Government for their anti -people policies.
Virendra Bhandari, one of the protesters, said that the proposed smart city will serve the interests of a few political leaders, bureaucrats and realtors with the common people being kept at bay.
“Besides, it would wipe out the colonial legacy left in the form of the tea estate. It would be unfortunate,” he added. The agitators say the State government should leave the tea plantation area and opt for another place for the Smart City project in Dehradun.
“Uttarakhand Housing Urban Development Authority had earlier earmarked places for the project in the State and they are in Gairsain, Chinyalisaud, Rudrapur, Pithoragarh, Jageshwar and Dehradun. But the State government eying the tea estate for the project smacks of a deep-rooted conspiracy to do away with tea plantation in the city for huge bucks. We are convinced that a scam would tumble out of it soon and those both from the ruling and opposition parties would be found entangled in it,” said another agitator Vijay Rawat.
Among others present at the stir were Rajendra Purohit, Surendra Singh Sajwan and Shiv Prakash Devli.