Nothing smart about ‘Smart City’ meet

KOCHI: The special session of the Corporation council which was convened to formulate a road map to implement the Smart City mission, failed to throw any light on the project and its mode of execution.

Though Mayor Tony Chammany requested councillors to suggest constructive ideas for carrying out the Rs 1,000 cr mega project, not even a single suggestion was debated. The entire session was dominated by the debate over the political mileage of the project.

While the ruling councillors were keen on portraying Smart City as their biggest achievement,  LDF councillors were trying to deglamorise it.

After a presentation was made by Sundar Rajan, representative of the consultancy ICRA, Mr. Chammany asked councillors to share their views and ideas.

However, starting the debate, CPM councillor Adv. M. Anil Kumar tried to divert the focus of the discussion from creative ideas to its procedures and timeline.

Though he asked a couple of questions of the ICRA official, none of them pertained to the prospects, mode of implementation and potential of the scheme.

It appeared that he wanted to prove that the Mayor was in a haste to initiate the project eyeing the local body polls.

The consultant requested the councillors to share their views on four key points such as city’s identity, strengths, and unique aspects, aspirations and themes for the city’s future, priority areas for transformation/change and likeable aspects to be retained /preserved. However, not even a single member responded.

“It is the next council that is elected which should discuss and impl-ement the project. There was no hurry to convene a special session now. The Mayor only wanted to portray the opposition as anti-development,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, another opposition councillor Adv. N.A Shafeeq said that all the 74 councillors failed to get a clear picture of the project. “How can the councillors convince people during ward committee meetings without a clear idea of the project?” he asked.  

Though the Mayor and development committee chairman T.J Vinod tried to explain the project, they also failed to throw light on its plan of action.