'Smart City' in Bhopal: Digvijaya demands rehabilitation

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh today demanded that before implementing the Smart City project in Shivaji Nagar and Tulsi Nagar areas here, the government employees living in official quarters there be rehabilitated.
He also questioned possible felling of thousands of trees for the project.
"I learnt that officials and employees living in Shivaji Nagar and Tulsi Nagar were given a deadline to vacate houses before June 30 and forced to rent private accommodations for the implementation of Smart City project," Singh said in a letter to the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
"The project is being implemented despite valid opposition from Bhopal Citizen's Forum and against the opinion of intellectuals....Opinions of local residents (on the project) were taken through internet in a fake manner by the employees of the Municipal Corporation," Singh alleged.

"It will also lead to uprooting of 30,000-40,000 trees which not only provide fresh air but have also made the area already Smart," he said.
A large number of small traders who have shops in these two areas will also get affected, Singh said.
The former Chief Minister demanded that before implementing the project, the affected people should be rehabilitated by shifting them to available government accommodations elsewhere.
Congress "will not tolerate it" if such measures were not taken, he said.