Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday slammed the Centre for not including any city from Bihar in the list of Smart Cities, saying it had “ignored” Bihar and upset the regional balance. “They did not follow any rules or regulations and this is andher nagari [regime with no governance],” Mr. Kumar said.
His deputy in the Cabinet, Tejaswi Yadav, too said the Centre’s omission amounted to “discrimination” against Bihar. “The Bihar government had sent them (the Centre) a proposal as per the required format. Earlier, the Central government had selected some cities in Bihar for the Smart City list but now they have ignored Bihar. It is their choice”, Mr. Kumar said.
Addressing journalists at Gandhi Ghat here, the Chief Minister said though it was the Centre’s decision to develop Smart Cities and it had prepared the criteria to select cities from different States, it had done a u-turn on the project.
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“They also limited the number of cities, and did not include even a single one from Bihar in the list of selected 20 cities,” he pointed out.
The Centre has claimed that the selection process was carried out in a transparent manner that and “no politics was involved” in it.
Of the 20 cities named in the first list, nine are from BJP-ruled States and four from Congress-ruled States.
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