Financial support to states much more than UPA: M Venkaiah Naidu

Kolkata: Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said that financial support to states and urban local bodies committed by the Centre was Rs three lakh crore over the next five to six years under JnNURM as compared to Rs 36,000 crore during 2005-14.

The central government has committed itself to support states and urban local bodies with assistance of over Rs three lakh crore over the next five to six years. This comes out in sharp contrast to the central assistance of only Rs 36,000 crore under JnNURM during 2005-14 when the UPA was in power", he said at a workshop on smart cities here.

He said "need of the hour was that all stakeholders were needed to work together as the agenda of the people of the country was only development."

"This should be the agenda for everybody. We want to transform India. The Centre will transform the nation while duty of the chief ministers is to transform the states", Naidu said.

"Mere populism will not going to help and one has to take bold and harsh decisions", he said.

The workshop was attended by elected and executive heads of 20 smart city aspirants from 13 eastern and NE states, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand as a part of 100 smart cities mission of the government.

Each of these cities have been given Rs two crore each for preparation of city level Smart City Plans in the next three months.

All the 100 city level plans will be evaluated based on a set of elaborate criteria in the second stage of City Challenge competition for identifying the top scoring 20 cities for financing during the current financial year.