Modern laws for smart cities: Bhattacharya

Cyber security crime will be a major challenge for the Government's ambitious plan of developing 100 smart cities making it imperative to replace traditional laws with modern ones focusing on crimes related to digital information, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, Pradip Bhattacharya has said.
Speaking at a conference of FICCI, he said the initiative may require not only comprehensive modernisation of the structure and operation of police forces but also a more flexible legal framework.
"Traditional laws will need to be replaced by modern police laws that will recognise newer crimes and ensure appropriate focus on crimes related to cyber security like information and identity thefts, breach of data privacy and, hacking of websites and networks", Bhattacharya said.

He emphasised the need for caution in the development of 'Smart Cities' lest the provision of a safe city environment leads to creation of class divisions between perceived smart citizens and other citizens debarred from availing of the facilities and opportunities of a 'Smart City'.
He said there has been little pondering over the inclusiveness of different sections of society in a 'Smart City' and therefore it was imperative to ensure that it should not lead to withering of a common sense of belonging to the nation by creating isolated island of disintegrated cities.
"Let 'Smart Nation' be a futuristic goal of this novel endeavour. The government's '100 Smart Cities' initiative would surely intensify the process of urbanisation with half of the country's population living in urban areas," he said.

Bhattacharya said in such a scenario, while 'smart city' solutions would be inevitable, the future of the rural population who would need focused attention to increase production and productivity will be a matter of concern.
P V Rama Sastry, IGP, NIA stated that peace and harmony were essential factors for sustaining the country's economic growth. "But security threats loom large and unless these are addressed in right earnest there was a serious threat of derailing the growth engine," he said.