VOTE FOR A BETTER CITY 

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 7: Residents here are divided on their choice of development zones under smart city project.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had launched the 'Citizen Connect Initiative' to invite suggestions from people where they were asked to mention the zone and services they wanted to develop on priority basis under the smart city project. As part of the initiative, the corporation had urged the residents to register their votes either offline or online.

Trends of votes registered till 7pm today show that while online voters have chosen South City as their preferred development zone, the offline voters have chosen Bhuban-eswar Town Centre.

The voters either had to fill up a form and drop them in a box at the BMC office or lend their suggestions on the website launched for the purpose.

South City is a project related to the development of a satellite township near the city outskirts by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and Bhubaneswar Town Centre is the redevelopment plan of the city railway station and the nearby Ashok Nagar.

However, when it comes to people's choices of services they want in the smart city, the online voters have chosen traffic, parking and public transport. The offline voters, however, have sought development of drinking water and power facilities.

"If you see the trend, it gives a clear picture on how the economy and daily needs of the people influence their thoughts. Online voters mainly constitute tech-savvy individuals and those who own majority of the vehicles in the city. So, they need parking and more facilities under public transport. Offline voters, on the other hand, mainly constitute people from the fringe areas and slums who prefer drinking water as their first choice," said a senior official of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation.

The civic body's additional commissioner Sudhanshu Mohan Samal told The Telegraph: "The final figures of the offline votes would be available tomorrow."

A highly placed source in the corporation said: "Voting papers from some educational institutions of the city are yet to be counted."

"However, since all the ballot boxes from the slums and outskirts are already there the trend is likely to hold good for the rest of the places," said an official.

Policy co-ordinator of Water Aid in India (Bhubaneswar) Bikas Kumar Pati said: "Nearly 30 per cent of the city's population is still unable to get drinking water. The figure has not taken into consideration the unauthorised slums in the city. To become a smart city, provision of drinking water for all citizens will be a major challenge."

"While the temple city is growing in all directions, the planned development of a satellite city is also a need of the hour. The South City project should get proper attention because it could be a nice urban settlement between Bhubaneswar and Jatni,'' said resident Bijay Mishra.