Amidst questionable issues being raised on various aspects of the Dehradun smart city proposal, the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) vice chairman and project nodal officer R Meenakshi Sundaram informed that the period for voting on MyGov.in, a Government portal which had recently been extended till March 18 will now be open till March 22.
Appreciating that more than 20,000 votes for the project had been cast by citizens in about 20 days, he said that of the 23 fast track cities, Dehradun was leading in the number of votes. Sundaram also answered project related queries and noted suggestions made by the public at the third such workshop held here on Thursday.
Sundaram said, “In my opinion, a city is smart if public convenience is optimised. If you have to stand in queue for an hour for the Tehsildar, you are not in a smart city. The purpose is to make the life of citizens easier. The Union Government has clarified that the smart city project will not be based on civil engineering works which can be taken up under other schemes but on IT based citizen-centric solutions which will make life of the people easier.”
He explained the various options and components of the project while also stressing that he was not focusing on advocacy of the greenfield option but to raising awareness and public involvement so that the decision is taken based on informed choice of citizens.
“We learnt that all the 17 proposals based mainly on greenfield development were rejected by the Government in the first round. The Government is ready to extend the voting period up to March 31 but we will end it on March 22 to have time for finalising the proposal to be submitted by April 15,” he said while also adding that the proposal this time will also have retrofitting component along with greenfield area development.
Municipal commissioner Nitin Singh Bhadauriya exhorted the public to submit their suggestions and vote for their choice in the project. During the workshop, citizens from various fraternities raised issues like emphasis on tree plantation, developing civic sense among citizens, ensuring rainwater harvesting in all buildings and professional urban planning among other aspects.