On Monday when a miffed ruling Shiv Sena joined issue with its senior partner, BJP, over the “Smart city” project, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis categorically stated that the State Government had no plans whatsoever to take away the rights of Urban local Bodies (UlBs) by way of setting up Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to implement the Prime Minister’s flagship project.
Hours after the Sena’s official mouth-piece “Saamana” went to town dubbing the smart city project as both “illegal” and “unconstitutional” and alleging that it was being used by the Centre a ploy to have control over Mumbai, the Chief Minister said that his Government was prepared to call an all-party meeting to discuss the anomalies in the smart city project being implemented in the State.
“Every city has a different problem. The formation of a SPV with funds from the State Government and the municipal corporation would be like a private company that would control the municipal corporation, and the city would thus be finally controlled by the Centre,” the Saamana editorial stated.
Rubbing it on the Devendra Fadnavis-led government, Sena MlA and Mumbai’s former Mayor Sunil Prabhu said at Nagpur: “It would simply take away the rights of UlBs and for Mumbai, it appears to be an attempt to make it function like an Union Territory”.
Replying a debate on the issue in the State Assembly in Nagpur where the winter session of Maharashtra legislature is currently going on, Fadnavis said: “We don’t want to stress the fiscal resources of the UlBs; by setting up an SPV. The government wanted to increase the credit rating of the municipal corporations which will help in raising more funds. With the help of SPV, UlBs can built more funding resources in low income and that is the reason to set up SPV to implement smart city project”.