Mangaluru: A day after Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu, announced the first list of 20 cities to be developed under the Smart Cities scheme, MLC Ivan D’Souza has suspected political influence to be one of the important reasons for leaving out Mangaluru.
He said that the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) will urge the Urban Development Ministry for a white paper explaining the factors that unqualified the city under the ambitious project.
It may be recalled that Mangaluru was one among the six cities recommended by the Karnataka State government to the Union government under its ‘Smart Cities’ scheme. The other cities recommended were Davangere, Tumakuru, Shivamogga, Belagavi and Hubballi-Dharwad.
Out of these, Davangere and Belagavi have been chosen in the first phase. While he congratulated the two cities, he said that Mangaluru is anytime better than them and he is deeply disappointed by the decision.
Opposition leader Sudheer Shetty had earlier stated that the project report submitted had errors due to which the city was not considered. Responding to this, Ivan said that the report was fine. He added that it was finalized taking everyone into confidence and after discussing with all the leaders irrespective of political parties.
Ivan opined that as Minister Siddeshwara hailing from Davangere is in the union cabinet and Belagavi MP Suresh Kallangadi is a highly influential person belonging to the BJP, the two cities have been preferred over Mangaluru.
He added that the MCC will demand for a revision if any foul play is encountered.
