Smart City? Kalaburagi was never in reckoning

KALABURAGI: Kalaburagi Mahanagar Palike’s (KMP) failure to make it to the Centre’s list for the Smart City project, an ambitious venture to improve the quality of life through smart solutions in urban areas, has not come as a shocker for people of Kalaburagi.

It was known to many that the city would not fulfill the criteria laid down by the Centre for the project. Sources said minister for muncipal administration and district in-charge minister Qamrul Islam should take the blame for the failure of the city to make it to the list. The project would have got Kalaburagi a total of Rs 500 crore over a period of five years. But as minister for municipal administration, who is directly responsible for implementing most of the programmes for getting eligibility such as construction of toilets, mobilization of internal resources by KMP and implementation of JNNURM programmes, Mr Islam was a big failure, they said.

For instance, KMP which has scored 84 in 100 marks, has scored zero in utilisation of funds under Swachh Bharat Yojane since 2011. The Centre had fixed ten points for this programme which was aimed at construction of individual toilets in the city. While more than 16,000 households do not have individual toilets as per the 2011 census, the number of toilets built under Swachh Bharat Yojane since 2011 was a meagre 36.  

Mr Islam has often been criticized by both the Opposition as well as some ruling party MLAs for being ‘inefficient’ with some leaders like former minister Malikayya Guttedar and Aland MLA B.R. Patil demanding his removal from the Cabinet. Even Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in a letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on July 20, took exception to the tardy progress of development work in the region by Hyderabad-Karnataka Region Development Board, which is headed  by Mr Islam.