At a time when Smart City Mission is being pushed across the country with people’s participation, nasty issues of corruption and opaque policies are negatively affecting policies as in the case of Nagpur Municipal Corporation.

NMC standing committee is reported to have legalised the contract given to private agencies under the Smart City project. The approval was given despite objections from one of the members.

The standing committee headed by Ramesh Shingare held a meeting recently to discuss 32 proposals, including those related to giving approval to an expenditure of Rs 2.58 million on citizen’s awareness campaigns by engaging a private agency without following mandatory tendering process and seeking approval from the standing committee.

“I was told that the work order was issued without following norms due to urgency in Smart City project. Approval was given after passing strictures on the department. I should have been at least intimated once in case of urgency,” Shingare said.

He said he too had no details about the controversial proposal that actually bypassed the standing committee. He admitted that the response from the campaign was not satisfactory. He, however, ruled out any investigation.