Rajnath reads smart cities as safe cities

rajUnion Home Minister Rajnath Singh will soon be proposing that the 100 smart cities announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi should also be developed into safe cities. It can be done via using latest security equipment like CCTVS, command control centres, patrol cars, aerial surveillance and more women cops.

The Home Ministry will be approaching the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) with the proposal that the former’s safe city project should be combined with the Rs 48,000 crore ‘Smart Cities’ Project so that the 100 to be developed smart cities should also be safe from crime or terror.

At present, the ‘Safe City’ Project by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) includes only seven metro cities, i.e. Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. However, it now proposes to cover all 100 safe cities under that concept in association with the MoUD.

To discuss the matter further, Rajnath Singh had a meeting with MoS Kiren Rijiju, the Director General of Bureau of Police Research and Development NR Wasan and MHA Security Advisor K Vijay Kumar. In the meeting, Rijiju said, “The smart cities need to be safe cities as well. We are planning to propose the same for planning in advance.”

Last month, the Prime Minister had announced the names of 98 cities that will be developed as smart cities under the government’s flagship project, with nomination of one city each pending from Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

One of the officials from MHA said, “The idea is that MHA and UD Ministry should not work in isolation on each of its projects and it is better that MHA works with UD on the latter’s project rather than planning for the safety of the cities subsequently.”