Public representatives and members of the local community have welcomed the selection of Dehradun smart city proposal by the Union Government. Dehradun Mayor and Dharmpur MlA Vinod Chamoli said that with this decision, considerable development will be facilitated in the provisional State capital.
Stating that the smart city proposal which was drafted during the term of the previous Congress-led State Government was passed by the Union Government, the Mayor said that despite facing Opposition, the proposal had been passed in the board meeting of the municipal corporation of Dehradun.
local student activist group Making a Difference by Being the Difference (MAD) also welcomed the inclusion of Dehradun in the smart city list. Even with Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority’s last suggestion, MAD members had continued to point out that this city should not look at its environmental endowments as constraints and burdens and should rather make sustainability its unique selling proposition.
A release from the group stated that the students have cautiously welcomed this inclusion of Dehradun in the smart city list and have appealed to the Government to proceed with sustainable models of development and make some use of the expertise extended by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute of India (NEERI) whose 1996 report titled ‘Carrying Capacity Based Development Planning of Doon Valley’ is gathering dust.