Smart Cities Mission: Discontent in Patna

Ranked 82nd in the Smart Cities ranking, Patna secured 16.83 score out of 250. The left hand here does not appear to know what the right hand is doing. A year ago pipelines were laid to supply CNG to homes. A year later the roads are being dug up again for the metro rail project.

The garbage collection vehicles have been introduced but people complain they are not segregating the garbage as mandated. The temporary garbage dump barely 500 metres from the state Assembly shows no sign of moving either.

The latest fad is to have a marine drive (Ganga Marine Drive) to replace earlier efforts to clean up the river bank and spruce up the Ghats. Money was spent like water to bring the river closer to the city and now money has again been spent to build a ‘Ganga pathway’ to prevent the river from coming closer.

Every ward in the capital city has now a structure to house various services offered by the government. Two years have passed since the structures were built, but the service counters are yet to become functional. Public money is being squandered, feels RTI activist Suman Kumar, who points out how three companies collected Rs 5 crore from the Patna Municipal Corporation to pay non-existent contract workers.

(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday.)