New Delhi: Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday hit back at Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia for questioning the Centre for choosing NDMC area for the smart city mission, saying it was selected by his leader Arvind Kejriwal.
Sisodia, last week, had termed the Centre's smart city initiative as "half approach" and "not inclusive", and said the concept of the smart city was flawed, indicating that the Union government preferred choosing an area, which already has many smart features.
"Now let me tell you as to who selected the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area for the smart city development project. It is neither Mr (Narendra) Modi, the Prime Minister nor me the Urban Development Minister. It was Mr Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi.
"I am surprised that his deputy was not aware of this basic fact," the Union Urban Development Minister said while addressing "Economic Times Infra Conference" here.
Under the smart city guidelines, he said the cities for inclusion in the smart city mission were to be selected by the respective state governments, based on a competition among the statutory urban local bodies in that state.
As far as Delhi is concerned, Naidu said the Delhi government assessed the four urban local bodies -- North, South and East municipal corporations of Delhi and NDMC and finally recommended the NDMC for smart development.
Naidu said Kejriwal and his deputy should be "blamed" for recommending the NDMC for smart development if they feel that it was wrong.
