On her maiden visit to New Delhi after taking over charge as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti took up the issue of inclusion of Jammu and Srinagar in the Smart Cities mission. The mission is an urban renewal programme of the government under which 100 cities all over the country will be developed with a sharp focus on infrastructure, land use planning, transport, design and architecture. The State Government had hoped that Srinagar and Jammu will feature in the list of 100 cities. However, the Central Government didn’t include them. This was one of the issues that had stalled the PDP-BJP government formation in the State after the death of then Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed in January. The names of the cities selected for the Rs 48,000 crore Smart Cities project was released by the Centre pending a nomination each from Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir in last August. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the ambitious project with announcement of criteria and guidelines for 100 Smart Cities to be selected through city challenge competition in June last year and no city from the State figured. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the implementation guidelines for the 100 Smart Cities and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) missions. The selected city would get a Rs 100 crore a year central assistance for five years for developing urban infrastructure under the Smart City project. Uttar Pradesh has been given the maximum number of cities to nominate under the project followed by Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. J and K State along with Kerala, Jharkhand, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Chandigarh have been given only one city to each to be developed as Smart City. If the political wisdom goes how does the issue affects peoples life if the State gets two Smart Cities, when in reality some areas of Jammu and Kashmir do not have the basic facilities and amenities for the people.
