At a time when the Rourkela Municipal Corporation has been giving hundred per cent efforts to be in first 20 list of Smart City, the transfer notice to Rourkela Municipal Corporation Commissioner DP Mohapatra on Wednesday has raised eyebrows here. Many see a conspiracy behind the transfer to put a break on Rourkela from being included in the first 20 list.
It may be mentioned here that the corporation tag to Rourkela Municipality was notified on November 14, 2014. Since then a demand has taken momentum for posting of more officers for smooth functioning of RMC. Despite this, the Government could not make any headway on that front. Even when the Central Government asked to sponsor two city names for Smart City and accordingly Rourkela along with Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Brahmapur and Sambalpur were in the race, no extra supports were extended to Rourkela. Despite this in evaluation Rourkela stood second next to Bhubaneswar beating Cuttack, Brahmapur and Sambalpur.
At that time, though the Centre had asked the State to sponsor two names, the latter recommended all the five cities’ names. That time it was also alleged that the State Government conspiringly recommended the other three names to give a check to Rourkela. Any way Rourkela was finally short listed by the Centre.
Now all the shortlisted cities of the country are having a tight schedule to submit their proposals by December 15 and basing on that the top-20 would be considered for first year’s financial support. But while the work is in full swing in Rourkela, the Government has issued order for transfer of RMC Commissioner to BDA. This would certainly hit the Smart City proposal preparation and secondly while the time is very short, the new officer cannot do anything as he would have no knowledge and idea of the scheme.
local leaders across the party line have urged to cancel the transfer of RMC Commissioner Mohapatra.