Doon tea estate only option for smart city: CM

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
Chief Minister Harish Rawat today said there was no option for the state government other than acquiring the Dehradun tea garden land if a smart city has to come up in the region.
Harish Rawat told mediapersons that the government twice searched for an alternative land but could not find any other than the Dehradun tea garden. “We had no option but to acquire the Dehradun tea garden land for the smart city project,” he said, adding that as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, he had two choices, either to accept the Centre’s historic offer of smart city or forgo the project.
The Chief Minister took a dig at the BJP and said through smart city, he was only carrying forward the Centre’s project and if the state BJP was opposed to it, they must ask the Centre to refuse the state’s smart city proposal. He asked the BJP that if it was against the acquisition of the Dehradun tea garden land for smart city, it should also clarify as to where such city can be set-up. “The BJP should remember that smart cities are a brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he observed.
He denied that the smart city project would be a high value city meant only for higher class people. He said the smart city would help poorer sections of society get cheap houses. He also pointed out that the opposition to smart city was totally a sponsored protest.
Harish Rawat said the much awaited appointment of Lokayukta and information commissioners would take place early next year.
The Chief Minister expressed concern over rising trend of environment activism in Uttarakhand. He said it was a matter of concern that Uttarakhand was expected to protect the environment at the cost of development.
Harish Rawat directed all departments to utilise the budget before the end of the financial year. State Congress president Kishore Upadhyay and Forest Minister Dinesh Agarwal were present at the news conference.
 
Top