BIHAR DY CM PITCHES FOR ‘SMART VILLAGE’

Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejaswi Prasad Yadav today pitched for ‘Smart Village’ over ‘Smart City’ and accused the Centre of ignoring Bihar in the selection of cities under the urban scheme.”Bihar has been a victim of partiality by the union government – whether it is in the issue of Smart City or granting any package,” Yadav said.

Yadav, who reached the steel city today to take part in wedding of India’s national cricket team member Varun Aaron tomorrow, questioned the relevance behind developing cities, which were already developed while pitching for smart villages.”Do they want to develop cities like Bangalore and metropolitan cities such as Mumbai, Delhi etc, which are already developed, as smart cities,” he asked.

Noting that the government has earmarked Rs 200 crore for upgrading a city into a smart city, he wondered whether the amount was sufficient for the purpose.Yadav said he would prefer that the government develop smart villages, which represent large population of the country.He said the focus in Bihar was development and the government has undertaken ‘Bihar Vikas Mission’ to ensure all round development of the state in the next five years, irrespective of all negative campaigns launched by BJP and allies about the state.

On his government’s development plan, Yadav said the state government will develop a 21 km long river bridge between Kachchi Dargah (Patna)-Bidupur (Vaishali), which will be the longest bridge of Asia.The bridge will be developed at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore, the deputy chief minister said.Commenting on his Road Construction and Building Construction department, Yadav said the Bihar government has prepared a road map to develop infrastructure in the state.

“We have plan to invest Rs one lakh crore in the proposed Road Master Plan 2035, which would be reviewed every five years to ensure that the target is met within a timeframe,” he added.