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Finally, Shimla makes it to smart-city list right after MC Polls
SHIMLA- Shimla has made it into the list of cities to be develop as smart cities. The Central government today announced another list of 30 cities taking the total cities picked up to 90 under Smart City Mission launched on June 25, 2015. It happened right after the polls for the Shimla Municipal Corporation were held on June 16 in which Bhartiya Janata Party has registered a neat victory for the first time in last three decades.
Announcing the new batch of smart cities at a National Workshop on Urban Transformation here today, Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation M.Venkaiah Naidu said that 45 cities contested for 40 available smart city slots but only 30 were selected to ensure feasible and workable plans that match the aspirations of the citizens.
The 30 cities announced today proposed a total investment of Rs.57,393 cr under respective smart city plans. This includes Rs.46,879 cr for ensuring core infrastructure in the areas identified by citizens for area based development and Rs.10,514 cr for technology based solutions for improving governance , service delivery and utilization of infrastructure. With this the total investment approved under the smart city plans of 90 cities has gone up to Rs.1,91,155 cr.
Now 20 cities will be contesting for the remaining 10 slots under smart city mission. These are; Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Biharsharif (Bihar), Diu (Daman & Diu), Silvassa (Dadra and Nager Haveli), Kavaratti (Lakshadweep), Navimumbai, Greater Mumbai and Amaravati (Maharashtra), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong (Meghalaya), Dindigul and Erode(Tamil Nadu), Bidhannagar, Durgapur and Haldia (West Bengal), Meerut,Rai Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Sharanpur and Rampur (UP).
Naidu said selection of cities for smart city development is running ahead of schedule and the remaining cities would submit revised smart city plans for filling up the vacant slots.
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Gudiya Case: Ex-SP Shimla joins 8 other accused at Model Central Jail Kanda
Shimla: The former Superintendent of Shimla Police, D.W. Negi, finally joined eight other police officials including the ex-Inspector General, Southern Range, Zahur H. Zaidi, and the ex-Deputy Superintendent, Theog, at the Model Central Jail, Kanda.
The Court of Judicial Magistrate Ranjeet Singh Thakur on November 21, sent Negi in a judicial custody till November 23. He will be produced in the court along with eight other accused on the same date.
As per the report, the Central Bureau of Investigation sought his remand for five more days, which was denied by the court.
The CBI had arrested Negi on November 16 in case relating to the custodial killing of a Nepalese laborer, who was arrested by State Police SIT in relation to the rape and murder of a minor and was on remand till November 21.
A 16-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, gangraped, and murdered savagely in the Halaila woods of the Kotkhai region in Shimla district. Her naked dead body was found in the woods on July 6, 2017.
The HP Police SIT claimed a breakthrough on July 13 after arresting six accused including the deceased Suraj. Suraj was killed at the Kotkhai Police station under mysterious circumstances.
On August 29, the CBI arrested eight police officials for the alleged killing of the accused. Negi was arrested for forging FIR in custodial killing of Suraj. As per this FIR, local police had framed a co-accused Raju for he killing of Suraj.
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Candidates in Shimla (U) served notices for defacing public property
He removed the promotional material along with his team. He said the political parties will have to pay the expenditure made by the district administration on removal of the posters/flyers/banners.
Shimla: With the elections come usual visual pollution and defacing of the public property because the political parties or the candidates are ignorant and possess little or no respect towards the rules. Neither they care about maintaining remaining beauty of Himachal’s towns.
As an appreciable step, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Shimal (Urban) Ajit Bhardwaj on Wednesday issued a notice to candidates of various parties who are defacing the public property in the city by pasting their posters, flyers, banners etc.
These candidates include Suresh Bhardwaj, Harish Janartha, Harbhajan Singh Bhajji, and Sanjay Chauhan.
The SDM visited some localities of Shimla and found that parties are not adhering to the places specifically marked for placement of such posters/banners.
He removed the promotional material along with his team. He said the political parties will have to pay the expenditure made by the district administration on removal of the same.
On Tuesday, the district administration and the Municipal Corporation of Shimla had asked these candidates to remove their promotional material from the public property.
The candidates were warned of appropriate legal action as per the rules related to defacing of the public property.
It is an ethical duty of all the political parties and candidates that they show respect to laws and refrain from creating cluttered scene in their respective constituencies.
There is no justification for defacing public property if the administration has already marked specific zones or places for this purpose.
Photo: Representational/HT