The Brahmapur Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday held a meeting for demanding smart city tag for Brahmapur. While Mayor K Madhavi chaired, it was attended by Commissioner Manoj Mohanty and all Corporators.
The Corporators wanted to know the current status of the proposed solid waste treatment plant to be set up at Mohuda under PPP mode.
Most of the Corporators stressed the need of cleaning the drainage system of their respective areas and taking preventive measures well in advance to counter dengue epidemic since the monsoon is underway. They demanded that till the proposed solid waste management plant comes up, the BMC should engage private parties to lift garbage from door to door.
Significantly, several of them reportedly demanded to place before the meeting the detail accounts of the funds received from the State Government, World Bank and other funding bodies for different projects. BMC Health Officer Subhakanta Das informed about the assistance so far received under Swachh Bharat Mission. The Corporators were further appraised of the preparedness of the BMC to construct 6,289 private toilets and identification of places for construction of 14 toilets for public use near different 14 key bus stops.
A resolution was adopted for sending its proposal to the Union Government for inclusion of Brahmapur under the smart city scheme, as it has the ability to fulfill 95 per cent of the eligibility conditions.
It also decided to send a delegation, including the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and all the Corporators of BMC irrespective of their party affiliations to Bhubaneswar to meet the Chief Minister for inclusion of Brahmapur in smart city scheme.
Congress Corporators Srinivas Rao and Anil Kumar Nayak were of the opinion that some of the key conditions like 24-hour water supply, underground electrification of wires/cables, effective functionality of sewerage lines, workability of the proposed solid waste management plant, and targeted revenue collection are some of the key hurdles to which the BMC has failed to address effectively which ultimately may jeopardise the smart city dream project. A few suggested constituting forum for smart city.