KOCHI: The preparation of the concept plan of the Kochi Smart City project has become a sham of a democratic process with the state and the central governments reducing it to secretive affair, keeping the elected Kochi corporation council in the dark.
It is understood that the Smart City Mission and the private rating agency ICRA have finalised the concept note and project proposals and will present them before an international jury headed by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on December 18.
This would be violative of the Central government norms that mandate that the concept plan and the project proposals get the approval of the elected council.
However, the Mission has refused to present the council with a copy of the documents, leave alone seeking its approval. The only interaction till now has been a presentation on the project before the previous council in the initial stages of the project.
“We have no idea how the Mission can submit the proposal to the Union government without the council’s approval,” said a top civic official.
“We even fear the international jury might reject it for want of the council approval. The Smart City project has been conceived for cities with active participation of the urban local bodies concerned but the state government and the private agency have hijacked it in Kochi.”
Even the mayor and the deputy mayor are totally ignorant of what is happening, the official said.
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