Speak to those on the margins
Citizens should have a greater say in the smart cities mission
The names of 10 more cities to be funded under the Centre’s Smart City Mission (SCM) will be announced shortly, the Union housing and urban affairs ministry said on January 16. Launched on June 25, 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the mission, which seeks to create 100 smart cities in India by 2020, is one of the flagship programmes of the NDA government. Since the mission promises ₹500 crore as central assistance per city to implement projects – an equal amount has to be generated by the state — a number of cities across the nation are vying with each other to climb on to the ‘smart’ bandwagon. The idea of creating an efficient urban infrastructure in 100 Indian cities by 2020 with an objective to modernise them with high-speed Internet, uninterrupted power and water supply, along with efficient public transport and living standards comparable to Europe is ambitious. So it is worth examining some of the criticism that has come the mission’s way.
One of the biggest criticisms of the mission, say urban planners, involves a conflict between two power structures in urban governance: local civic bodies and the special purpose vehicles (SPV), mandatory public-private entities created to manage projects and the funding attached to them. Ideally, the SPVs should help local bodies generate funds from private sources, but they often go against the tenets of local self-governance, contend representatives of local bodies of some of the cities.
Another cause for concern entails what critics call the mission’s non-inclusive nature owing to the purported lack of public participation in the citizen consultation process. Eviction of people from slums generated its share of controversy. Then there is a question mark over whether the mission really addresses the needs of marginalised groups, according to a 2017 study by Delhibased advocacy group Housing and Land Rights Network. Given the levels of homelessness, poverty and exclusion of the urban poor, the concept of a smart city, perhaps, needs to be relocated in the Indian context. For it to be successful, citizens and local governing bodies should have a greater say in the mission.