Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ‘Smart Cities’ project, Congress leader Narayan Rane on Wednesday said the project is unconstitutional and that money being allocated by the Centre is for schemes, work on which is already in progress. He also hit out at the state government saying there has not been a single decision taken in the legislature since BJP came to power in Maharashtra.
Slamming the state government’s “inability” to take decisions for the welfare of people in the past one year since it came to power, the former chief minister, while addressing reporters on Wednesday, said, “In the 1980s, (former Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi's government had made certain amendments in the Constitution, according to which, only municipal corporations and local bodies can take decisions on development work in their respective areas. The ‘Smart Cities’ concept does not fit into the parameters of the Constitution.”
“This project is thus unconstitutional and cannot be allowed to be implemented. How can private bodies bypass an elected body and take decisions on redevelopment On top of all this, the insufficient money that is being provided by the Centre is for those projects, work on which is already going on and being executed by local bodies,” said Mr Rane.
He said that earlier, Shiv Sena and MNS had opposed the project, terming it as “illegal” and as a ploy to centrally control cities like Mumbai. He claimed that the BJP-led state government had left all questions raised by opposition parties unanswered and that none of the money allocated by the Centre as drought relief would actually benefit farmers.
“This money will be used by the government for various purposes like waiving off school fees of children and payment of electricity bills of farmers. The government has to do all this work anyway when it declares drought in the state,” said Mr Rane. He added that the Sena, an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in the state is “aware Mr Fadnavis is only a man of words and not action” but cannot do anything much about it due to the “compromise” the party has made with BJP on several issues. “This has now reduced the Sena into a party that needs to compromise on issues to stay afloat. It has no relation with ‘Hindutva’ and ‘Marathi manoos’ anymore,-" he said.
