Srinagar, July 25: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar on Tuesday said the inundation of the newly-refurbished Polo View Market in Srinagar under the Smarty City Project has taken the lid off the Srinagar “Smart City spectacle”.
In a statement issued here, Sagar said, “Severe water logging and inundation across Srinagar, particularly within the Polo View Market has washed off crores of rupees spent on the number of works carried out under the Smart City project. It was claimed that the city center drain infrastructure had been augmented to handle the storm waters. Scenes of chronic inundation, however, have laid bare the claims of the stakeholder departments. The visuals of rainwater entering Polo View market shops speak more than words as to how smart our city looks when it rains for a few hours. The road stretches across Srinagar that had no history of water logging are becoming prone to it now.”
After overnight rainfall in Srinagar, muddy waters have inundated nearly half a dozen shops at the refurbished Polo View Market in Srinagar, he said. “It is the first time water has seeped into the shops. Early in the morning, the shopkeepers were seen moving their expensive merchandise to safer places. The situation has well-founded our apprehensions on the pomp and show about the smart city project.”
Sagar also called for a thorough audit of all the works executed under the smart city project in Srinagar. “Government should hold the erring officers accountable. Substantial misuse of public funds should be investigated thoroughly and facts be brought to the public domain,” he added.
