Appointment of Smart City Corporations chairmen illegal: BJP

Kakinada: The State government has appointed YCP leaders as chairpersons of the three Smart City Corporations of Kakinada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati in gross violation of the Smart City Mission guidelines issued by the Central government, alleges senior BJP leader Duvvuri Subramanyam. Subramanyam sought information from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs whether or not the State government had got right to appoint its party activists as chairmen without approval and consent of Central government. The Ministry made it clear that the chairperson of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be the Divisional Commissioner, Collector, Municipal Commissioner, Chief Executive of the Urban Development Authority as decided by the State government.

As per the Mission statement and guidelines, the Board of Directors will have representatives of the Central government, State government, ULB and independent directors in addition to the CEO and functional directors.

With the reply from the Ministry, the BJP demanded that the government to scrap the chairperson appointed by the State government immediately. He said that the appointments of chairmen of Smart City Corporations of Kakinada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati are illegal and have gone in violation of established rules and provisions of Smart City Mission which is formed and managed under Companies Act 2013.

Recently Subramanyam addressed letters to the district Collectors of Chittoor, East Godavari and Viskahapatnam stating that appointments of chairpersons were not made as per the norms of the Smart City Mission. He said that as per the guidelines of the statement of Smart City Mission, political activists should not be appointed as chairman of Smart City Corporations. "The state government has no option but to choose and appoint one from among the Divisional Commissioner, the Collector, the Municipal Commissioner and the Chief Executive Officer of the Urban Development Authority as chairman of Smart City Corporation.

State BJP spokesperson Yenimireddy Malakondayya stated that the appointments made by the chairpersons of the Smart City Corporations like Kakinada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati have contravened the rules and norms of the Smart City Mission. Speaking to the media here, Malakondaiah stated that the genuine appointments have been overlooked, but instead political appointments are made. He said that politicians should not be appointed as chairpersons of the Smart Cities. He further stated that appointments should be made as per the Central government directives. And hence pleaded for total abolition of the appointments.

Malakondaiah alleged that these erroneous appointments were made by the YSRCP government by flouting the norms and regulations of the Smart City Mission. He further alleged that the Central government funds released for the purpose of development of the Smart Cities have been embezzled. Even though, the Central government sanctioned Rs. 1,000 crore for each smart city the TDP as well as YSRCP governments have misused the funds and benefited very little for the development of the smart cities. He said that this matter has been brought to the notice of the Central government.

He demanded the YSRCP government to release a "White Paper" regarding the utilisation of the funds released by the Central government for the sake of Smart City development.