Saturday, April 5, 2025

BJP slams govt on Smart City claims

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By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, Dec 23: The state BJP has rapped the Meghalaya government for calling the “unlivable” Shillong a Smart City.
“I don’t see anything smart about Shillong except the smart billboards installed all over the city,” BJP spokesperson Mariahom Kharkrang said on Monday.
He said Shillong is no longer livable and people who have the capacity are moving out to places in the Ri-Bhoi district.
“If we can travel only 2 km in an hour, it does not make sense for the people,” he said while asking the government to implement the projects instead of making tall claims.
According to Kharkrang, most projects the government talks about exist only in newspapers and social media whereas the city has nothing that can be called smart.
Lamenting that the pavements in the city continue to be invaded by hawkers, he feared that an extension road near the CRPF camp in Polo would also be run over by the vendors soon.
Stating that even the road to New Shillong Township is occupied by hawkers, he said the government is reluctant to act against them at the initial stage and eventually emboldens them to claim their spaces.
“We don’t even have anything futuristic in the city,” he said
The Meghalaya government had promised the construction of smart roads, improvement of junctions, construction of malls, parking lots, etc., under the Shillong Smart City project.
However, hardly anything except the Integrated Command and Control Centre is currently functional. Other projects, such as the Business Centre, shopping mall at Polo, and market complex at Laitumkhrah, have yet to be inaugurated.
A year has passed since the work on smart roads was scheduled to start. Other projects such as the beautification of Wahumkhrah and Ward’s Lake also appear to have been put in cold storage.

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