The Union government had selected Vishakapatnam to be developed as the Smart City and recently constituted a Task force comprising of 10 members to draw concrete proposals in that direction. The center allowed sole representation from the city in the task force i.e, the mayor of the city. Ironically the city do not have a mayor since 2012.
While the basic idea is to involve the people of Vizag to understand the needs of the city, the port city may not have its people or people’s representatives in the task force to represent their views and ideas in the prestigious project. The locals are now worried this may lead to non-understanding of the city neads.
The one member condition will not work as a MLA or a Corporator if inducted will only know the problems of his area but not the entire city. The state government is planning to conduct the civic polls as soon as possible so as to have a mayor and satisfy the Center’s precondition that a mayor is needed to take the smart city status forward.
