Warangal included as Smart City

Warangal has been included in the second list of smart cities released by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday. The other cities that figure in the list include Lucknow, Agartala, Dharmasala, Chandigarh, Raipur, Kolkata, Bhagalpur, Panaji, Port Blair, Ranchi, Imphal and Faridabad. In January, when the first list of 20 cities were announced, there was criticism that three oppositon States of Bihar, West Bengal and Utta Pradesh had been left out. Now these States have also been included in the list. Indeed, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said the smart cities had promoted regional inequality. As a result, of all the places, Bhagalpur had been selected from Bihar. The list of the cities chosen has apparently a smart plan in that they are in contiguous States, which was bound to promote the ultimate plan of smart India. Smart cities is a bold initiative by the government of India to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people to enable local development and harnessing of technology.