Smart cities to be secret cities, beginning of the end of transparency era

Finally, skeletons of real intentions behind smart cities mission have been started tumbling out of the cupboard. Initially making governance citizen-friendly was the key objective of smart cities projects, and public participation was said to be core tool to achieve it. Now instead of transparency, the word secrecy has become the buzz word for smart cities mission. The Government of India has issued a model Article of Association (AoA)  for the company to be formed under special purpose vehicle ( SPV) for smart cities.

There are several clauses that are controversial in this AoA, but secrecy clause has become matter of concern for transparency activists in India. The smart city mission had already killed basic principals of 74th amendment to the constitution of India. Now with this secrecy clause it has taken soul out of Right to information act.

 Preamble of RTI act says “Democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed;”. The smart city mission stands exactly opposite, it says ‘nobody has right to demand and no body has  aright disclose any information with respect to company formed under SPV.

 Reproduced here is secrecy clause in AoA .

(i) Every Director, Manager, Secretary, Auditor, Treasurer, Trustee, member of a committee, officer, servant, agent, accountant or any other person employed in the business of the Company shall, if so required by the Directors, before entering upon his duties, sign a declaration pledging himself to observe strict secrecy respecting all transactions and affairs of the Company with the customers and the state of the accounts with individuals and in matters relating thereto, and shall by such declaration pledge himself not to reveal any of the matters which may come to his knowledge in the discharge of his duties except when required so to do by the Directors or by law or by the person to whom such matters relate and except so far as may be necessary in order to comply with any of the provisions in these presents contained.

(ii) No member shall be entitled to visit or inspect any works of the Company without the permission of the Directors or to require discovery of or any information respecting any details of the Company's trading, or any matter which is or may be in the nature of a trade secret, mystery of trade, secret process or any other matter which may relate to the conduct of the business of the Company and which in the opinion of the Directors, it would be inexpedient in the interest of the Company to disclose. We, the several persons whose names and addresses are subscribed are desirous of being formed into a company in pursuance of these Articles, and we respectively agree to take the number of shares in the Capital of the Company set opposite our respective names.

In short smart city mission gives all the rights to collect taxes, user charges, sell, lease public properties, take loans, earn profit for the share holders ,to the company formed under SPV and confiscates all the rights conferred upon common citizens by constitution of India

Since the Right to Information act 2005 (RTI) was introduced 10 years back, bureaucracy and politicians made several attempts to kill or dilute its provisions. Several attempts were made to sabotage it. However despite various attacks RTI has made very small positive impact on governance. Irrespective of quantity of impact it has shaken wrong doers inside out. It seems hence they have introduced “mission smart cities.

As far as Smart City Pune project is concerned there is complete Lack of Transparency in entire process. The Agreement signed between PMC & Mckinsey has been uploaded belatedly on the PMC website. PMC has resorted to a limited transparency policy by not fully uploading documents pertaining to the award of the contract to Mckinsey. Appendix B – Key experts and Appendix C – Breakdown of contract price, which are integral part of the Agreement have not been uploaded. The letters of invitation to the consultants along with the Annexure are not uploaded on the PMC website. Details of the selection process are completely absent. These documents are critical to the award of the contract on which the RFP for the Smart City is based.

Interestingly when asked about whether the amendments given to Pune Smart city project by councilors of Pune Municipal Corporation (  PMC ) will be accepted or not,  Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu refusing the chances they would have to strictly adhere to the guidelines laid down under the Smart City Mission and that if they refuse to toe the line, they will have to opt out of the project. On the contrary event though there are   serious violations of the Model Request for Proposal (RFP) and the irregular concessions granted to Mckinsey against public interest, central government is silent on it.

The would be Chief executive officer of proposed SPV   and presently municipal commissioner PMC has already encroached upon general body and standing committee’s rights .Though he has not revealed any of PMC’s correspondence with whom it has signed so called non financial non binding Memorandum of understanding (MoU) , he has gone further to assure reimbursement of the amount to an institute without knowledge of  general body and standing committee’s  . It seems that he has assured reimbursement as CEO of proposed SPV.

In a letter written to principal director of symbiosis Kunal Kumar writes

“I welcome our collaboration where in MBA—IM students from SCMHRD, Symbiosis would work with us as interns for Smart Cities Mission. This is a path breaking partnership which brinks together academia with Government in mission mode in finding solutions for real life issues faced by the city.

Further, with reference to your email regarding budget proposal based on 60 days of engagement, we convey our agreement with the same. We would however like you to undertake the expenditure up front and thereafter let us reimburse the amount to you.

We  believe  this  engagement  will  go  a  long  way  in  enabling  transformation  of  Pune  city under Smart Cities Mission.”

Interestingly SCMHRD’s name doesn’t appear in the list of PMC’s so called non binding non financial MoU’s it has signed. No one knows how many such agreements he has signed on behalf of PMC .However as far as non binding non financial MoU’s that PMC has signed are concerned. The commissioner has categorically said that they will be allowed to participate in the tendering process of SPV and there lies the threat of manipulating proposed so called transparent tendering process.