Cuttack: With Bhubaneswar and Rourkela emerging as the frontrunners to get the ‘Smart City’ status in the State, Cuttack is trying its best to remain in the race.
Politicians along with college students and every section of the society residing in the thousand-year-old city leaving no stone unturned to include the city under the Centre’s ambitious project.
Two cities MLAs Debasis Samantray and Pravat Biswal met chief minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday and handed over a memorandum to him to include Cuttack in the Smart City project.
Besides, they also said if necessity arises, they will move to Delhi to get ‘Smart City’ tag for Cuttack.
Similarly, lawyers of Cuttack yesterday joined protests alleging discrimination to the city and submitted memorandums to the revenue divisional commissioner and the district collector.
They alleged that a faulty evaluation process was adopted to select the potential Smart Cities in the State.
Sources said the State government has decided to recommend Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Cuttack as the probable cities to be included in the project whereas Union Urban Development ministry has decided to adopt only two cities from the State in the ambitious project.