State likely to miss smart city bus in list-2 too

Patna: There has been much hue and cry over Bihar not figuring in the first list of 20 smart cities announced last week. If the state urban development and housing department (UDHD) minister, Maheshwar Hazari, is to be believed, Bihar will miss the bus in the second list of 23 cities, too!
Earlier, Biharsharif, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur were selected in the list of overall 98 cities across the country to be developed by the Centre as smart cities."We have come to know that none of our cities have been incorporated even in the second list. The central government is giving us stepmotherly treatment. As of now, the list has not been made public and we want PM Narendra Modi to reconsider the city names for the second list. The way they are behaving clearly shows their real colour. After the election in Bihar, Modi forgot all his promises and not giving us even our share," UDHD minister Maheshwar Hazari told TOI over phone from New Delhi.
Hazari criticized the PM for using the 'Smart City Mission' for his personal propaganda. "Modi always wants to be in the limelight and the 'Smart City Mission' is his popularity stunt," he said.
Talking about the motive behind this project, Hazari alleged that it was just to get funds from foreign countries. The UDHD sources said even CM Nitish Kumar was showing keen interest in the project and he was keeping an eye on all the files related to it. The CM, who has been continuously lashing out at the Union government since the day the first list was announced,tweeted on Monday, "Striking regional imbalances in Modiji's smart city list. Such deliberate neglect of states like Bihar, UP & WB on part of the GOI is disappointing." Nitish had also written to the Centre asking them to increase their funding for the mission. As of now, the Centre plans to give Rs100 crore and an equal amount was to be given by the government for developing any smart city.