Cuttack, July 30: Protests staged by councillors of the Congress and the BJP over the poor percentage given to Cuttack for the smart city project disrupted proceedings of the corporation's council meet today.

The Opposition parties alleged that the Union government had adopted a faulty evaluation process to select the potential of smart cities and both political leaders as well as bureaucrats had been engaged in a conspiracy to belittle Cuttack.

Holding placards, the councillors demanded immediate resignation of mayor Anita Behera for the failure on her part to carry out development projects in Cuttack.

"All the elected representatives of the BJD, including MLAs, MPs and councillors, have miserably failed to develop infrastructure in Cuttack for the past 15 years," said Congress councillor from ward No. 4 Giribala Behera.

Giribala alleged that the panel set up by the state government had awarded 70 points out of 100 to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, 61.1 points to Rourkela and 60 points each to the Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur civic bodies.

The corporation's rank assumes significance since only two cities will be selected from Odisha for the smart city project. Even though the state government has sent a list of all the five cities, it is believed that Cuttack will not make it in the final list of the two cities.

"It is a clear conspiracy by the state government as the newly formed corporation in Rourkela has been awarded more marks than Cuttack," said Congress councillor from ward No. 37 Dharmanand Patra.

BJP councillor from ward No. 48 Nirod Panda said: "Despite being one of the oldest cities, Cuttack has been neglected."

The meeting was disrupted even after BJD councillors had demanded a resolution, seeking the smart city status for Cuttack.

The BJD councillors also condemned the Congress protest. "The Congress councillors were not ready for a discussion and their protest was not justified. The state government cannot be held responsible as it was not given a free hand by the Union government to randomly pick two cities," said BJD councillor from ward No. 31 Bijay Sahoo.

The BJD councillors pledged that a memorandum would be submitted to the state government for the inclusion of Cuttack in the smart city project list.

"We are trying our best to get Cuttack included in the smart city list. For this purpose, we are analysing what made Cuttack get less marks when compared with Rourkela," said deputy mayor Ajay Barik.