 "Mamata Banerjee")
Barely a fortnight before West Bengal decided to indefinitely defer ratification of goods and services tax (GST), Mamata Banerjee discarded one of the much contested schemes of the Modi government—the Smart City project. The twin moves are seen as marks of protests by West Bengal over Centre’s interference in state matters.
Off late, West Bengal has emerged as one of the most vociferous states against the Centre. In particular, Banerjee is irked over Modi government’s move for setting up a central committee to monitor its schemes and the funds it sends to states, including West Bengal.
“The situation in the country is worse than emergency now. In the name of cooperative federalism, opinions of States are being bulldozed…I have never seen a more arrogant Central Government,” according to one out of many statements issued by All India Trinamool Congress in its website against the Centre.
Notably, West Bengal became the first, and only state so far, to turn down the Smart City Project.
New Town, the IT hub of the state, spread over about 7628 acres and a population of around 36000, was chosen by the Centre to be developed as a smart city last year. Over five years, West Bengal would have required to spend as much as Rs 500 crore on the project.
According to Banerjee, the idea and theory of Smart Cities idea is wrong, and the state would instead use Rs 500 crore for developing its own smart cities, christened as Green Cities.
A look at the funding pattern of Smart City projects show, not only the states are required to earmark hefty funds on the project, but also Central fund release would be tied to milestones achieved.
The state governments need to provide a matching grant from its own resources to develop smart cities. Thus, for every Rs 100 crore spent by the Centre, Rs 100 crore has to be spent by the State. Further, the fund release from the Centre is tied to several conditions like, "'satisfactory physical and financial progress as shown in the Utilisation Certificate and the annual City Score Card."
For West Bengal, which has debt of nearly Rs 3 lakh crore, an annual outgo of Rs 100 crore would have been a huge burden on its coffers. In 2016-17, outstanding debt of West Bengal is projected to touch nearly Rs 3.34 lakh crore, with its total loan repayment bill (principal and interest) expected to be Rs 36,869 crore.
However, at the same time, many also see the turning down of Smart City project as a lost opportunity.
"Smart City project could have helped the state to project concerted efforts of Centre, state and local bodies in bringing about development of urban areas. Also, there is an element of convergence of funds from other schemes like housing for all and preserving heritage structures, which could have helped the state. Of course, basic needs of people take the priority, but if that aim could be achieved by smart city project, there is no harm in developing it. Before turning down the Mission, the state could have waited for at least for a case study to assess the project."' said Debolina Kundu, Associate Professor, National Institute of Urban Affairs.
The Smart City plan included, developing roof top solar panels, sensor based drainage system, CCTV-based monitoring, integrated water management and construction of bi-cycle tracks among other things in the area.
The concept of Green City by West Bengal government is also not much different from the smart city project, sans the Central funding. However, the state wants to utilise the money for a more even development of cities in West Bengal.
“Green City is an inclusive strategy. It does not favour one area over another. In Smart City project, there was an element of bias. We will have all requisite infrastructure like solar lighting, water recycling and WiFi among other facilities in the Green Cities. We will come out with the final guidelines soon,” said Debashis Sen, principal secretary, urban development department, West Bengal.
Further, according to Sen, The Smart City project envisages floating a special purpose vehicle, which would work as a corporate, which is against the 74th Constitutional Amendment. The amendment gives power to urban local bodies in day-to-day governance.
The SPV under the Smart city plan is expected to plan, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the Smart City development projects. Each smart city will have a SPV which will be headed by a full time CEO and have nominees of Central Government, State Government and urban local bodies on its board.
Notably, earlier, when the Central government had launched the Swach Bharat Mission, West Bengal government was already showcasing the success of its own version of the project as Nirmal Bangla Mission. Whether this time, Green city of Mamata Banerjee would be able to take on the smart city of Narendra Modi, would make an interesting case study.
